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LIYES 



THE BACHELOR KINGS 



ENGLAND 



BY 



AUTHOR OF 



'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND' 

AND 

'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND ■ 



The treasures of antiquity laid up 

In old historic rolls I opened— Beaumon t 




LONDON 
SIMPKIN, MAESHALL, AND CO 



The right of translation is reserved by the Author 



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ipswich : 
printed by j. m. burton and co. 



TO 



THE READERS 



'LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND' 



THIS NEW SERIES OF ROYAL BIOGRAPHIES 



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BY THEIR FAITHFUL FRIEND 



AGNES STRICKLAND 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE 

PREFACE ...... IX 

LIFE OF WILLIAM RUFUS— 

CHAP. I. . . • 1 

ii 28 

in. . . . . 61 

LIFE OF EDWARD V— 

CHAP. I. . . . 101 

II 126 

III. . .. ,166 

LIFE OF EDWARD VI— 

CHAP. I. . . .193 

ii 228 

• 

in. .... 260 

iv. . 297 

v. .336 

vi. . . . . 375 

APPENDIX . . . .429 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FRONTISPIECE— PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM RUFUS. From an ancient 
illuminated MS. Chronicle of the Anglo-Norman Monarchs, preserved in the 
Cottonian Collection, Vitellius, British Museum, Rich MSS. room. (See 
page 33.) 



VIGNETTE— EDWARD VI., attended by his Ministers of State, granting the 
Charter of Bridewell, for a Reformatory Prison, to sir George Barne, the Lord 
Mayor of London. From the original by Hans Holbein, Bridewell Hall. 
(See page 400). 



WILLIAM KUFUS. 

CHAPTER I.— TAIL-PIECE : AUTOGRAPH OF WILLIAM RUFUS. (See 
page 21.) 



CHAPTER III.— TAIL-PIECE ; EQUESTRIAN FIGURE of WILLIAM 
RUFUS, from the Great Seal of England. (See page 98.) 



EDWAED V. 

PORTRAIT OF EDWARD V., from an Ancient Painting, copied by Hou- 
braken. (See pages 101, 186, 187.) 



CHAPTER I.— TAIL- PIECE : EQUESTRIAN EFFIGY of EDWARD V. as 
Prince of Wales, from one of his Welsh Charters. (Seepage 125.) 



CHAPTER U.— TAIL-PIECE : AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD V., likewise 
of his uncle, the PROTECTOR, RICHARD, duke of Gloucester, from Royal 
Autographs, British Museum. (See page 165.) 



V1U ILLUSTRATIONS. 

CHAPTER III.— TAIL-PIECE : WAKEFIELD TOWER and PORTCULLIS 
GATE-WAY, from an Original Drawing. (See page 190.) 



EDWAED VI. 

PORTRAIT OF EDWARD VI.— From the Original Painting by Hans Holbein 
in the great hall at Bridewell. (See pages 193, 400.) 



CHAPTER I.— TAIL-PIECE : THE FONT and CANOPY with the arrange- 
ments of State in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court, used at the baptism of 
EDWARD VI. reduced from the contemporary drawing in the Heralds MS., 
College of Arms, and engraved by permission for this work. (See page 227.) 



CHAPTER II.— TAIL-PIECE : AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD VI. Royal 
Autographs, Choice MSS. room, British Museum. (See page 259.) 



CHAPTER III.— TAIL-PIECE : STATUE OF EDWARD VI., Christ-church 
School. (See page 296.) 



CHAPTER IV.— TAIL-PIECE : THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET showing 
EDWARD VI. to the PEOPLE gathered at the Lower or Western Gate, 
Hampton Court. (See page 335.) 



CHAPTER V.— TAIL-PIECE: EQUESTRIAN EFFIGY of EDWARD VI. 
in TILTING ARMOUR. From the Tower, as arranged by sir Samuel 
Merrick. (See page 374.) 



CHAPTER VI.—T AIL-PIECE : BRONZE ALTAR, formerly in Henry 
VII.'s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, where obsequies were performed in 
memory of Edward VI. (See page 427.) 



PEEFACE. 



The Royal Biographies in our present series are those 
of the three unmarried Kings of England — William 
Rufus, Edward V., and Edward VI. The intermediate 
reigns of these Bachelor Sovereigns occasioned chasms 
in the chronological chain of royal and domestic 
national history, comprised in our Lives of the 
Queens or England, which this volume is calculated 
to supply. But, although a desirable adjunct to that 
work, it is a volume complete in itself, with distinct 
and independent claims to the attention of our readers, 
both with regard to the individual interest of the 
biographical narratives it contains, and, more especially, 
as illustrating three very important epochs of our 
annals. 

In the Reign of William Rufus we trace the 
commencement of our national greatness, the dawn of 
the age of chivalry, of poetry, historical literature, and 



X FREFACE, 

of the fine arts, as indicated in illuminated penmanship, 
monumental sculpture, and, above all, the glorious 
style of architecture, which for strength and beauty 
has never been surpassed. 

With the Life of Edward V. we enter upon a 
still more interesting era; the erection of England's 
first printing press — that true organ of civiliza- 
tion and liberty- — was coeval with his birth. He was 
the first prince in whose education printed books were 
used, and one of the earliest works printed in Eng- 
land was dedicated to him. 

The Life and Reign of our third Bachelor King, 
Edward VI., are blended with the third momentous 
period of English history, that of the Reformation. 
Much curious information is introduced into this por- 
tion of the volume, derived from sources not accessible* 
to the general reader, of the personal characteristics 
and court of our first Protestant Sovereign — 

" Who, born to guide such high emprize, 
For Albion's weal was early wise. 
Alas ! to whom the Almighty gave, 
For Albion's sins, an early grave!" 

The reign of Edward V. was merely nominal. In 
the reigns of William Rufus and Edward VI. the ab- 
sence of a queen was severely felt. Female royalty 
has always been most beneficial to England, both 



PREFACE. XI 

from its refining influence on the manners of the 
court, and the impetus it has given to trade, the 
encouragement of domestic manufactures, and the 
employment of native produce and native industry. 

"A court without ladies," observed Francis I. of 
France, "is like a spring without flowers." But a 
court full of ladies, without a queen, would soon fall 
into disrepute with the nation at large. It is, there- 
fore, sincerely to be hoped that we may never be 
required to write the Biography of a Bachelor King 
of Great Britain.* 



Reydon Hall, Suffolk, 
May 27, 1861. 



* Edward the VI. was the twenty-first king of England, and the last 
monarch to whom that ancient title can, properly speaking, be applied, as 
the next male sovereign, James the I., and his successors, claim the more 
important dignity of kings of Great Britain. 



THE 

BACHELOB KINGS OF ENGLAND. 



WILLIAM BUFUS, 



CHAPTER I. 

William Rufus first Bachelor King of England — Parentage — Birth — 
Brought to England by his mother Queen Matilda — Educated by Lanfranc 
— Knighted by Lanfranc — His personal appearance at eighteen — Early 
promise —Fracas between the royal brothers — Insult to Robert — Rufus' s 
attachment to his father — "Wounded by his side in battle — Attends his 
death bed — Conqueror's desire that Rufus should possess England — 
Their tender parting — Rufus sails for England— Proceeds to Winchester- 
Gets possession of the royal treasury — Crowned at Westminster by 
Lanfranc — Wise commencement of his reign — His uncle Odo intrigues in 
favour of Robert — Norman barons' revolt — Rufus conciliates his English 
subjects — Their hearty assistance — He captures Odo — Odo violates his 
pledge — Fall of Rochester — Rufus threatens to hang Odo and rebel 
lords — Consents to spare them — Establishes himself firmly on the English 
throne — Visited by his brother Henry— His sarcastic remark on the 
result of Henry's loan to Robert— Oppressive conduct of Norman barons 
— Ivo de Taillebois* and the monks of Croyland — Lanfranc shows their 
charter to Rufus — Equitable decision of Rufus— Establishes a court of 
appeal called Curia Regis— Breaks his pledge to his English subjects — 
Reproached by his aged primate, Lanfranc — His shameless rejoiuder — 
Death of Lanfranc — Rufus commences an evil course — His taste for 
architecture — Great public buildings erected by him. 

William II., surnamed, from his sanguine complexion 
and the warm colour of his hair, Rufus, or the Red 
King, was the first Bachelor King of England. He was 
the third son of William the Conqueror and Matilda of 
Flanders, with whom the readers of the " Lives of 
the Queens of England "* are already familiar. 

* " Lives of the Queens of England," by Agnes Stkickland, vol. 1, page 
21, Library Edition. 
1 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 



William Rufus was born in Normandy, in tlie year 
1060, and was therefore about six years old when his 
royal father invaded England, and in his ninth year 
when he accompanied his mother, Queen Matilda, thither 
for her coronation in April, 1068. 

Under the tutelage of that celebrated scholar, states- 
man, and divine, Lanfranc, abbot of Bee, afterwards 
archbishop of Canterbury, who was his preceptor, 
he enjoyed the advantages of a far more liberal 
education than most of the princes, his contemporaries, 
could boast. He was carefully instructed in classic lore, 
and all the branches of the learning of the period, 
as well as the use of arms ; riding, tilting, and 
other manly exercises of strength and skill requisite 
for a prince.* 

. "When his education was considered sufficiently ad- 
vanced to admit of his entering the arena of public life, 
William was knighted by his reverend preceptor,! it 
being perfectly in accordance with the customs of the 
period for abbots to bestow the acolade of knighthood 
as well as princes and military chiefs. 

An accurate idea of the person and costume of William 
Rufus in his early youth may be gathered from the 
curious engraving in Montfaucon J of his statuette on the 
tomb of his cousin Philip I. of France, at St. Benoit Sur 
Loire, also from an illuminated MS. of the 13th century 
in the Bibliothecque Colbert. 

He is there represented, in his eighteenth or nineteenth 
year, holding a falcon on his left wrist, and feeding it with 
his right hand. He is bareheaded, and has an oval 
contour of countenance, regular features, and luxuriant 
hair, parted in thick picturesque curls on either side 
his face. His throat is long and elegantly turned; his 
figure slight and graceful, enveloped in a long gown, over 

* William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. 

I " Monuraens de la Monarchie Fra^aise/'rol. 1, plate 55. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 6 

which he wears a short mantle, fastened with a brooch 
on his left shoulder. 

"William Eufus was at that period regarded as a 
prince of the fairest promise.* He energetically competed 
with the noble youth of England, Normandy, and France 
in all manly and chivalric exercises and feats of arms, 
esteeming it injurious to his reputation if he were not 
seen foremost in posts of danger, the first to challenge 
an adversary, and when challenged, if he did not vanquish 
his opponent. 

" Stalwart lie was in battle, good knight, through all thing, 
In battle and tournament, ere that he was king," 

says Robert of Gloucester, who does not,' in general, bear 
a favourable testimony of this prince. All contemporary 
chroniclers, however, record that Rufus was most dutiful 
and affectionate to his royal father, whom he invariably 
studied to please, always exerting himself to second him 
in battle, and rarely absent from his side in peace. The 
partial favour with which, in consequence, he was regarded 
by the Conqueror, excited the jealousy of his eldest 
brother Robert, especially after the death of Richard, the 
second and previously favourite son of their royal father. 

The doting fondness of Queen Matilda, their mother, for 
Robert her firstborn, on whom she lavished all the 
treasures and precious things in her power, increased the 
domestic feud which, a few years after the conquest 
of England, broke out between the princely brethren. 
Robert gathered round him all the young, disaffected, 
and reckless of the Norman nobility, and became the 
leader of a faction opposed to the political measures of 
the king, his father, whom he .desired to supplant in the 
government of Normandy and Maine. f 

* William of Malmesbury. 

f See Life of Matilda of Flanders, " Lives of the Queens of England," by 
Agnes Strickland, vol. 1, pages 79 — 82, Library Edition. 



4 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

William Rufus warmly espoused his father's cause, arid 
taught his youngest brother, Henry, who was yet of 
tender age, to unite with him in defying and expressing 
contempt for Robert. These feelings, being too openly 
manifested in the wild thoughtlessness of youth, led 
to what Ordericus Vitalis calls " a diabolical quarrel " 
between Robert and the two younger princes, his 
brothers. 

It happened that the Conqueror, being on his way 
to quell an insurrection in that part of Maine called 
the Corbonnais, accompanied by his favourite son, William 
Rufus, and the boy Henry, came to sup and pass the 
night at the castle of I/Aigle, where his malcontent son, 
Robert, who had for some time withdrawn himself from 
the court, was then sojourning, on a visit to Robert 
College, a Norman noble of his faction. While their 
royal sire was occupied with his council, the two younger 
princes went into the balcony of the banqueting room to 
amuse themselves with playing at dice and other games. 
Unluckily, in the midst of their glee, espying their elder 
brother walking in the court below, with a party of his 
chosen associates and followers, they, either out of rude 
play, or to manifest contempt for him and his adherents, 
threw some dirty water from the balcony on their heads, 
with uproarious shouts of laughter.* 

If Robert had been disposed to treat the matter as 
a joke, his companions would not allow him to do so. 
" Here is an insult ! " cried the two youngest sons of 
Hugh, count de Grantmesnil. "If you bear such an 
indignity tamely, my lord, you are a lost man, and can 
never lift up your head again. See how your younger 
brothers have exalted themselves above you, and will you 
allow them to offer, with impunity, marks of contempt so 
gross as this to you and your faithful friends P" Infuriated 
at these observations, Robert drew his sword, and rushed 
into the banqueting room, to take vengeance on the 

* Ordericus Yitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. D 

youthful offenders, who would probably have paid dearly 
for their fun, if the cries of their attendants had not 
brought the king, their father, to the spot, who sternly 
interposed his authority to compose the fray. Robert, 
goaded by his bad advisers, deserted from his royal 
father's army, with the troop of horse under his 
command. The next night he made an attempt 
to surprise and seize the castle of Rouen ; but it was so 
successfully defended by the careful and intrepid Roger 
d'lvry, to whom the charge of that important fortress 
had been committed, that his treasonable design proved a 
failure. His adherents were arrested and severely pun- 
ished. He escaped and took refuge with the king of 
France, by whom he was secretly encouraged and sup- 
ported in his unfilial rebellion. 

During the reverses which, almost for the first time, 
were experienced by William the Conqueror in his Breton 
campaign, where he lost the greater part of his fine 
army before the castle of Dol, Rufus faithfully adhered 
to his fortunes, shared his perils and hardships, and was 
dangerously wounded while fighting valiantly by his 
side at Grerborai, the memorable battle where Robert 
encountered and unhorsed their royal father in the melee, 
but recognising him by his voice, remounted him on his 
own charger, and besought his forgiveness with tears. The 
Norman prelates and nobles endeavoured to effect a 
reconciliation, but the king was at first too deeply 
incensed to listen to their intercessions. "Why," 
exclaimed he, passionately, " do you urge me in favour 
of a traitor, who has not only seduced my soldiers from 
their allegiance, but rendered himself the tool of envious 
foreign princes, to disturb the peace of my realm?" 
He yielded, however, to the tears and entreaties of his 
beloved consort, Matilda, and a temporary reconciliation 
was effected by her mediation.* 

* William of Malmesbary ; Ordericus Vitalis; R. Hoveden ; Florence 
of Worcester. 



6 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

God's peace, the holy re-union of the royal father and 
his erring first-born, was too soon broken by the evil 
passions, jealousies, and suspicions, that once more sowed 
divisions between them. Robert left Normandy for the 
third time, in sullen discontent, pursued by the malison 
of his offended sire. Robert had indeed stolen the hearts 
of the young men of Normandy ; but Rufus was 
regarded by deep-seeing and experienced statesmen 
as the rising sun. 

William Rufus was in close attendance on his royal 
father, during his last fatal sickness at Hermentrude, 
near Rouen ; and when the prelates and nobles were 
summoned to listen to the verbal testament that monarch 
dictated, with his expiring breath, to the clerks and 
notaries in their presence, he, with his youngest 
brother, Henry, stood beside the bed of death. 

"My greatest desire/' said the dying Conqueror, "is 
that my son William, whom you here behold, should be 
my successor to the throne of England ; but fearing that 
my demission of that fair realm, which I won by violence, 
and where I have shed much blood, should be deemed too 
presumptuous by the Most High, to whom pertain the 
disposition of all the sceptres of this earth, I resign it 
into His hands, beseeching Him to bestow it, with His 
blessing, on this, my son, William, and permit him to 
wear the crown thereof ; provided it be for the welfare of 
the people, and the good of the churches there."* 

Then he ordered a letter, which he had written some 
time previously to Rufus's former preceptor, Arch- 
bishop Lanfranc, his chancellor and prime minister, 
to be brought to him, and looking earnestly on 
this, his favourite son, who sighed deeply, he said to 
him : 

" My son, the death of kings is generally followed by 
great commotions, therefore, in contemplation of mine, I 

* Ordericus Vitalis ; William of Malmesbury ; Wace ; Historie General of 
Normandy, by Gabriel Moulin. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 7 

give you this letter, signed by my hand and scaled with 
my seal, which I have written to the Archbishop 
Lanfranc, directing him to consecrate and crown you 
King of England, in order to prevent future disputes 
on this subject. Now, then, hasten with God's blessing 
to England, and receive this last kiss as a token of my 
most tender love." 

At these words Rufus, bursting into a flood of tears, 
embraced and took leave of his dying sire, and attended 
by Robert Bloet, the Conqueror's private secretary, a 
most able clerk, rode post haste to the sea coast. 

Early the next morning, Sept. 10th, 1087, the Con- 
queror breathed his last. The tidings of that event 
reached Rufus at the port of Wissand, by a swift 
messenger, before he sailed for England.* He hastened 
to Winchester, where the treasures of his royal father 
were kept, and prevailed on William de Pont de l'Arche, 
to whose charge they had been confided, to surrender the 
keys to him. He proceeded in a business-like manner, 
by taking inventories of everything, and carefully 
weighing the silver, which amounted to £600,000, 
besides a large sum in gold, many valuable jewels, 
much costly plate, rich array, tapestry, and other pre- 
cious moveables. f 

Rufus had a very difficult game to play, for the right of 
primogeniture was with Robert, an incalculable advan- 
tage in those days ; besides, Robert, being in opposition to 
his father, had a strong party both in Normandy and 
England, especially in England, where his easy temper 
and generous friendship for the representative of the 
ancient royal line, Edgar, the Atheling, greatly endeared 
him to the people. Had he been on the alert as 
soon as Rufus, it is more than probable he would 
have been chosen in preference. But his dilatoriness in 

* Saxon Chronicle ; Ordericus Vitalis ; Florence of Worcester ; William 
of Malmesbury ; Wendover. 

f Ingnlphns; Thierry's "Norman Conquest." 



O WILLIAM RUFUS. 

regard to his own interests had become a proverb, and 
gained him the reproachful sobriquet of " Robert the 
Unready/' 

William concealed his father's death till he had gathered 
his own friends about him, and taken measures for 
securing the castles of Dover, Hastings, Pevensey, the 
principal fortresses on the south and south-west coast, 
and won Eudes, the great steward, and other powerful 
officers of the crown, to his interests. He then returned 
to "Winchester, announced his father's death, and desire 
for him to succeed to the realm of England, promised to 
relax the yoke under which the deceased sovereign had 
crushed the people of the land, to grant them the 
righteous laws of Edward the Confessor, and, in short, to 
redress all the grievances of which they justly com- 
plained.* His fair words, and liberal disbursements from 
the rich exchequer that had fallen into his possession, pre- 
vailed, and he was crowned by Lanfranc in Westminster 
Abbey, on the 27th of September, seventeen days after 
his royal father's death, and received the homage of 
all the bishops and nobles, who had larger estates in 
England than in Normandy. 

One of the first, acts of William Eufus was to deliver 
to Otho, the goldsmith, a large quantity of gold, silver, 
and precious stones for the decoration of his royal father's 
tomb, in St. Stephen's Abbey, at Caen, ordering him, at 
the same time, to superintend the erection of a monument 
of extraordinary magnificence over the remains of that 
illustrious monarch, sparing neither pains nor expense to 
testify his filial affection and respect for his memory, f 

Otho, who is supposed to be the same person men- 
tioned, in Domesday-Book, among the King's goldsmiths, 
as " Otto aurifaber," being an artificer of much skill and 
taste, executed the task assigned to him in an admirable 
manner, and the tomb, says Ordericus Vitalis, " may 
* Brompton ; Saxon Chronicle ; S. Dunelra ; Ordericus Vitalis. 
f Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. V 

now be seen resplendent with gold, silver, and gems." 
When we trace the heartless desecration and barbarous 
spoliation of this noble monument of one of the most 
distinguished men the world ever saw,* we may well 
exclaim with Scott — 

11 Oh failing honours of the dead ! 
Oh high ambition lowly laid! " 

Guided by the prudent counsels of the venerable 
Lanfranc, his prime minister, William commenced his 
reign so wisely, "that it was hoped he would be the very 
mirror of kings," observes the contemporary chronicler, 
William of Malmesbury, whom truth afterwards com- 
pels to give a very different report of this versatile and 
excitable prince. 

Everything went on smoothly till the arrival of Odo, 
bishop of Bayeux and earl of Kent, the son of William 
the Conqueror's mother Arlotta, by her husband Herluin, 
of Couteville. Odo, who had, during many years of the 
reign of his illustrious maternal brother, acted as prime 
minister, and governed England with despotic sway, had, 
in consequence of his rapacity, abuse of power, seditious 
practices, and underhand intrigues, to obtain the Papacy, 
been arrested by his royal kinsman, and imprisoned in 
Normandy, f It was with great difficulty that an order 
for his release had been wrung from the Conqueror on his 
death bed. Odo, having assisted his favourite nephew 
Robert, to settle himself in the government of JNormandy, 
where he was given — by that ease-loving prince — 
absolute authority to rule as the director of affairs, both 
spiritual and temporal, now presented himself at the 
court of England, to pray for the restitution of the 
earldom of Kent, and the numerous manors which had 
been confiscated by his brother, the late king. William 

* See Life of Matilda of Flanders, in " Lives of Queens of England," by 
Agnes Strickland, page 104, Library Edition. 

+ William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Yitalis ; Roger of Wendover. 



10 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

Rufus restored everything Odo could justly claim, and 
received his homage as earl of Kent. This was not 
enough to satisfy the ambitious prelate; he aimed at 
being re-instated in the authority he had for so many 
years abused, and which he now with jealous ire saw 
exercised by Lanfranc, assisted by William, bishop of 
Durham. Lanfranc was turned of ninety years of age, 
but prudently declined associating Odo in the govern- 
ment of which he was the responsible head. 

Independently of the envy and ill-will excited by this 
circumstance, Odo was aware that Lanfranc had acted as 
the voice of those who desired the evil report of his 
extortions and oppressions to be laid before the late king ; 
and when William hesitated to arrest him on account of 
his high rank in the church, had quieted that scruple 
with the following clever logic, " My lord, you will not 
arrest your brother as the bishop of Bayeux, but the 
traitor earl of Kent." * On this hint the Conqueror had 
acted, and when Odo pleaded the inviolability of his 
cloth, replied by repeating those words. Odo had never 
forgiven Lanfranc, and earnestly desired both to supplant 
and punish him. Aware that there was no chance of 
doing either as long as Rufus wore the crown of England, 
he organised an extensive conspiracy for transferring it 
to Robert, calculating on having everything then his 
own way, because of the ascendency he possessed over 
the mind of that prince. Odo succeeded in seducing 
several of the most powerful of Rufus's nobles, especially 
those who possessed demesnes in Normandy, from their 
allegiance. William, bishop of Durham, united with him 
in his seditious practices, and declared that the peace 
of England and Normandy could only be ensured by 
both realms being under one sovereign, and as the 
right of primogeniture belonged to Robert, it would 
be for the general good to dethrone and put Rufus to 
death. A most formidable confederation of the great 
* William of Malraesbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 11 

Norman barons, in every quarter of England, was formed 
for this purpose. They did not wait for the advent of a 
chief who bore the proverbial surname of the Unready, 
but rose in revolt in all parts of the country, and com- 
mitted the most barbarous devastations.* 

Rufus, when he found himself thus unexpectedly beset 
with treachery, his authority openly defied in all parts 
of his realm, and his supplies, from the northern counties, 
cut off, through the defection of the bishop of Durham, 
" was far," says the contemporary chronicler, Ordericus 
Yitalis, "from skulking, like a frighted fox, in the depths 
of caverns ; but roused himself boldly, with a lion's 
courage, to strike a terrible blow at the rebels." 

His great reliance was on the English, whose yoke he 
had lightened, and he now successfully appealed to their 
gratitude and affection for support in the general defection 
of his Norman baronage. He had spent more time in 
England than Eobert, and understanding somewhat of 
the language and the heroic spirit of the people, he called 
a national council, at which they were requested to meet 
him, Archbishop Lanfranc, and such of the prelates and 
nobles who still remained attached to his cause. He 
addressed them in a short, energetic speech, acquainting 
them with the treacherous and disloyal proceedings of his 
uncle and his own countrymen, and frankly stated that 
he confided in the support and valour of his brave 
English subjects, and concluded with this exhortation : 
"Let every man who would not be accounted a 
nidering" — literally, a nothing, or ignoble person — 
" arm and follow me, and assist me to chastise these 
insolent traitors." f 

"Well did the Eed King understand the temper of those 
whom he addressed, the epithet of a nidering being 
regarded as the most contemptuous of all reproaches. 
Every Englishman present volunteered his services to 
quell the revolt, exclaiming, " We will fight for you to 
* William of Malmesbury. f Ibid. 



12 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

the death, and never shall a foreign prince supplant in 
our affections, yon whom we have freely acknowledged for 
our king. Send your orders through England, and you 
will find yourself freely obeyed by our people. See you 
not how they are flocking to your standard, and are ready 
to crush yon false rebels with the weight of your lawful 
power ? Search well the chronicles of the English, and 
you will find that they have always been faithful to their 
kings. " * 

Encouraged by this generous burst of feeling, William 
Rufus immediately took the field at the head of the 
native chivalry of the land, marched against the Nor- 
man insurgents, and besieged his uncle Odo's castles 
at Tunbridge and Pevensey, and after a seven weeks 7 
siege, compelled him to surrender. William gave him his 
life, and promised him his liberty, on condition of his 
swearing to deliver up the strong castle of Rochester, 
where he had bestowed the principal part of his plunder. 
Odo took the oath without hesitation, and being con- 
ducted by a party of the royal troops under the walls of 
the castle, required the commanders of the garrison, 
Eustace son of the count de Boulogne, and Robert de 
Belesme, to surrender it to King William. TJiese 
noblemen were much surprised at the injunction, for it 
was a place of the utmost importance to the insur- 
gents, as it gave them the command of the whole 
country, even to London, and they were well provided 
for defence. 

While they were deliberating, they observed that Odo 
was accompanied by a very small party, and that his 
gesticulations contradicted his words, whereupon they 
sallied out, captured his escort, rescued him, and brought 
him back into the castle with them in triumph, f 

Rufus was in a towering passion at the manner in which 
his uncle had evaded the performance of his oath, and 

* Ordericus Yitalis ; "William of Malmesbury ; Roger of Wendover. 
f William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Yitalis ; Roger of Wendover. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 13 

vowed that if he fell into his hands a second time, he 
should not escape so lightly. Odo was resolved to hold 
out both the castle and town till the arrival of Robert 
with his promised succours. Robert only despatched a 
small squadron of ships with troops, which were inter- 
cepted, defeated, and sunk by William's fleet, without 
effecting a landing. Having obtained a conference with 
Roger Montgomery, who was second in authority to Odo, 
in the confederacy for dethroning him, King "William 
inquired on what grounds he and the other Norman 
barons had revolted from him.* 

"Because," replied Montgomery, "you have not a 
legal title to the throne, which of right belongeth to your 
eldest brother." "But," rejoined the king, "I hold it 
by right of my father's nomination, who, having won 
England, appointed me for his successor by the authority 
of his own will and pleasure, even as he had previously 
given fair portions of this same realm to you and others 
of his nobles, by making you earls, therefore if you 
dispute his power to make me king of England, do you 
not at the same time invalidate your own titles to your 
English earldoms, which you hold on no sounder tenure 
than the gift of the Conqueror, my father ? " 

Montgomery considered the royal rhetoric unanswerable, 
and agreed to renew his allegiance. His defection was the 
death-blow to the rebel cause. William shut up Odo 
and his adherents in the city of Rochester, by raising 
two forts against them, and cutting off all supplies. The 
besieged were at the same time grievously tormented 
with a plague of flies, which is compared by the 
chroniclers to that which tormented the Egyptians, of 
old, never ceasing for a moment from whizzing round them 
and attacking them. " So severely," continues Ordericus 
Yitalis, "was the insolent band of rebels afflicted with the 
annoyance of these swarms that they could not eat their 
meals either by night or day, unless a great number of 

* William of Malmesbury. 



14 "WILLIAM RUFUS. 

them were employed, in turn, in flapping them away from 
their comrades' faces/' 

The cause of this terrible nuisance was the dirty habits 
of the besieged having engendered a deadly pestilence, 
of which numbers of the townspeople and garrison 
died. Odo and his confederates, being unable to endure 
the miseries of the siege, sent envoys to William, offering 
to capitulate, provided he would guarantee their property 
and restitution to all the manors, lands, and titles they 
possessed in England. On these conditions being named 
to the king, he burst into a furious passion, and told the 
envoys " he was astonished at their audacity in proposing 
any such terms to him," and swore " he would presently 
storm the town and castle, and hang the bishop and the 
rest of the false traitors who were shut up there, or sweep 
them from the earth by other means." This terrible 
answer filled the besieged with consternation and terror. 
Fortunately, those of the Norman nobles who had re- 
mained faithful to the king, took upon themselves to 
intercede, and endeavour to prevail on him to rescind his 
vindictive resolution to put every one of the leaders of the 
revolt to death. They proposed to his imitation the clemency 
of David to Absalom and Shimei, and entreated him to 
behave with mercy and magnanimity. "When we spare 
perjurers, robbers, plunderers, and execrable traitors," 
replied William, passionately, " we destroy the peace and 
security of the well- disposed. In what have I offended 
these criminal men? What injury have I done them 
that they should thus have sought to destroy me by 
raising insurrections and causing so much public loss and 
misery? David, whose example you propose to me, 
caused the murderers of Ishbosheth to be hanged, and I 
am determined to punish these seditious traitors in such 
a manner as to deter others from following the same 
pernicious courses."* 

The nobles answered by reminding William that " the 

* Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 15 

leader of the insurgents being his own uncle and a bishop, 
it would be impossible to punish him in the manner he 
threatened, and as many of the others had been his 
renowned father's devoted followers and valiant assist- 
ants in his conquest of England, it would be wrong to 
shed their blood, however deeply they had offended him." 
Under these considerations, William suffered himself to be 
persuaded to spare his vanquished foes from death or 
mutilation, and permitted them to depart with their 
horses and arms. Odo wished to obtain the further 
concession, that the flourish of trumpets, customary at 
the marching out of the garrison from a surrendered 
town and fortress, might be omitted ; but when this 
petition was preferred to the king, he swore, with a 
fresh burst of anger, " that he would not grant it for a 
thousand marks of gold." 

The royal trumpeters, we are told, sounded their most 
insulting notes of triumph, as the humiliated confederates 
and their garrison dejectedly marched out, while the 
crowds of English, who had so materially contributed to 
the victory of the Red King shouted in derision, " Halters, 
halters ! bring halters and hang this traitor bishop and 
his accomplices on a gallows ! " while others angrily 
exclaimed, " Great king, permit not this author of our 
woes to escape unpunished. This perjured homicide, who 
hath caused the death of thousands by his cruelties and 
oppressions, ought not to live." * 

William Rufus, with all his faults, many of which 
proceeded from the excessive excitability of his fiery 
temperament, was too manly to abandon his fallen foes to 
the vengeance of his victorious English lieges, who 
were with difficulty restrained from tearing them to 
pieces. From this well merited fate, Odo and his 
noble Norman associates were protected by his royal 
nephew, who satisfied himself with seizing all their 
acquired property in England, and banishing them from 

* Ordericus Vitalis. 



16 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

his realm for ever. It was expected that a signal 
punishment would be inflicted on the bishop of Durham, 
whose treason had been of a very aggravated cha- 
racter, as a minister high in the confidence of his 
sovereign; but William contented himself with depriv- 
ing him of his benefice, and sending him away with 
the others, telling him at the same time he remitted " all 
further penalties for old acquaintance' sake, and the 
remembrance of the long friendship that had been 
between them."* 

The insurrection being thus happily crushed by the 
energy and address of the king, he returned in triumph 
to London. His younger brother, Henry, soon after 
presented himself at his court, and requested to be put in 
possession of the deceased queen, his mother's, appanage, 
to which he was by her will entitled. Rufus received 
him very kindly, and acceded to his suit, although he had 
great reason to be offended with him, seeing that Robert, 
who was entirely destitute of means to assist the insur- 
gents, had obtained from Henry the loan of the five 
thousand pounds the late king, their father, had 
bequeathed to that prince on his death-bed, and which 
appears to have comprised all the ready money in 
Normandy. Robert had mortgaged the rich province 
of the Cotentin to Henry for the above sum, but 
having expended it in fitting out the ineffectual arma- 
ment intended for the invasion of England, he most 
dishonourably withheld the promised pledge, on which 
his brother had advanced the money, and forced a 
quarrel with him for complaining of his broken faith. 
This was well known to Rufus, who had now ample 
opportunity of punishing Henry for supplying his 
adversary with the means of disturbing his govern- 
ment ; but he contented himself with sarcastically 
inquiring of the defrauded prince, "how he liked the 
interest Robert had given him for his money?" f 
* Ordericus Vitalis. f William of Malmesbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 17 

The banishment of the great Norman nobles who had 
taken part in the late insurrection against King William, 
was a source of thankfulness to both church and laity of 
the people of the land. The aggressions of Ivo de 
Taillebois, as recorded by Ingulphus, the abbot and 
chronicler of Croyland Abbey,* afford too amusing a 
page in the domestic history of the country, in the 
early part of the reign of William Bufus, to be omitted. 

This place, so interesting to all lovers of liberty, 
as the refuge where the last patriotic opposers of the 
Norman invaders were wont to retreat, is a nucleus 
of marsh, situated between the rivers Nene, Assendyke, 
and Welland, in the fens of Lincolnshire, inaccessible 
to wheeled carriages. But it possessed rich and valu- 
able lands and dependencies in the neighbourhood of 
Spalding, Cappelade, and Deeping, which were coveted 
and lawlessly seized by their powerful neighbour, Ivo 
de Taillebois, on the death of William the Conqueror. 
Ingulphus, in consequence of this aggression, proceeded 
to Canterbury, to consult his old friend Archbishop 
Lanfranc, and ask his intercession with his royal pupil, 
the' new king, William Eufus, against the powerful 
spoiler of the abbey. Lanfranc received him affection- 
ately, promised to use his influence with Rufus, appointed 
a day for hearing • the cause in London, and advised 
Ingulphus to come, prepared with the best charter he 
possessed, for proving the rights of the abbey to the 

* Ingulphus, the son of a London visited all the celebrated christian 

citizeu, was one of the literary lights stations in the East ; but falling into 

of England. His early intelligence as the hands of robbers on his way 

a "Westminster scholar had attracted home, and suffering much from 

the notice of Queen Editha, the con- hardships, he bade adieu to the 

sort of Edward the Confessor, and world, and embraced a monastic 

in riper years obtained for him the life in the convent of Fonteville. 

place of private secretary to William After passing many tranquil years 

the Conqueror, when duke of Nor- there, he was appointed by William 

mandy. He afterwards performed a the Conqueror, in the year 1075, to 

pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in company perform the duties of Wulketul, the 

with many distinguished persons, and deprived abbot of Croyland. 
2 



1 8 WILLIAM ' EXTFTTS. 

lands in dispute, but not to bring forward the whole 
of their voluminous documents, "for," added the vene- 
rable chancellor archbishop, " of making many books 
there is no end." 

The impatient temperament of his august pupil was 
too well known to Lanfranc for him to allow the chronicler 
of Croyland to risk provoking unbecoming expletives, at 
the sight of such a superfluous weight of evidence, in the 
shape of ancient deeds and muniments, as that zealous 
antiquary was prepared to show in substantiation of the 
invaded rights of the abbey. Ingulphus, acting on this 
discreet hint, produced, on the day appointed, the charter 
of earl Algar, endowing the abbey with the said lands, 
written in Saxon characters, which Lanfranc, after 
having duly investigated, carried to the king, and 
explained the case so clearly, that Rufus forthwith 
addressed a royal letter to the sheriff, commanding inqui- 
sition to be made as to the lawful proprietorship of the 
lands, when judgment being given in favour of the 
abbey, Ivo de Taillebois was ordered to restore them in 
full. On the death of Lanfranc, the greedy spoiler 
renewed his aggression, taking advantage of the calami- 
tous fire at the abbey of Croyland, which had destroyed 
the precious library, and, as he hoped, the muniments 
belonging to that establishment. " Our charters of 
extreme beauty," says Ingulphus, "formed of materials of 
matchless value, and written in capital letters, adorned 
with golden crosses and rich paintings ; the privileges also 
granted by the kings of Mercia, documents of extreme 
antiquity, and of the greatest value, written in the Saxon 
characters, and exquisitely adorned with pictures in gold, 
were all burned ; the whole of these muniments of ours, 
both great and small, nearly four hundred in number, 
were in one night — which proved to us of the blackest 
hue — lost and utterly destroyed. The whole of our 
library also perished, which contained more than three 
hundred volumes of original works, besides more than 



WILLIAM RTJFtTS. ' 19 

four hundred smaller volumes. A few j^cars before, 
however, I had of my own accord taken from our 
muniment room several charters, written in Saxon charac- 
ters, and as we had duplicates, and in some instances 
even triplicates of them, I had put them into the hands 
of our chanter, the lord Fulmar, to be kept in the 
cloisters, in order to instruct the juniors in the Saxon 
characters, as this kind of writing had for a long time, 
on account of the Normans, been neglected. These 
charters having been deposited in an ancient press, 
which was kept in the cloisters, and surrounded on 
every side by the wall of the church, were the only 
ones that were preserved from the fire. These now 
form our principal and especial muniments, having been 
long neglected and despised, on account of the bar- 
barous characters in which they were written, in accord- 
ance with the words of blessed Job, ' The things that my 
soul refused to touch have become my sorrowful meat.' " 
These were, however, as it proved, of the utmost 
importance, being the rude original documents from 
which the gaily decorated, gilded, and illuminated copies 
whereof the brethren of Croyland were so proud, had 
been made. Not, however, to follow Ingulphus in his 
pathetic lamentations for the losses the monastery had 
sustained in the destructive fire, of the ravages of which 
he gives an eloquent and truly poetic description ; let 
us now relate the legal use that was made of the 
preservation of the antiquated documents that were 
happily preserved from the devouring flames. 

"Ivo de Taillebois, who had always been our implacable 
enemy, supposing that, as common report asserted, all our 
charters had perished in the conflagration, caused us to 
be cited to shew by what title we held our lands that lay 
in his demesne, although he had often seen our charters, 
and heard them read. Brother Trig, our proctor, ap- 
peared at Spalding on the day of trial, and produced the 
charters of sheriff Thorold, and also those of both the 



20 * WILLIAM RUFUS. 

earls Algar, still safe and unburned ; whereupon the said 
Ivo de Taillebois, being disappointed in his expecta- 
tions, resorted to raillery and abuse, saying, that such 
' barbarous writing was only worthy of laughter and 
derision, and could not be esteemed of any weight or 
validity.' " 

It is impossible to refrain from smiling at the criticisms 
which, for lack of more cogent objections, the rapacious 
Anjevin baron thought proper to pass on the ancient 
penmanship, which, in reality, proved the authenticity of 
the charters securing to the monastery of Croyland the 
lands he desired to appropriate. Probably, the clerkly 
skill of Ivo de Taillebois, if it enabled him "to frame 
the letters that composed his mighty name," did not 
extend to the power of reading that of any other man. 
"On this," continues Ingulphus, "brother Trig made 
answer to him, 'that these documents had been read 
in the presence of the renowned King William, and 
also the king, his son, "William Eufus, and had been 
praised and confirmed both by them and their council; 
and that after they had been recited and established 
by the royal authority, it was not in his power to 
invalidate them; but if he should hereafter make 
such an attempt, we should appeal to our lord the 
king, and demand a hearing at his tribunal.' Our 
brother Trig then rolled up our charters, and delivered 
them, before every one, to his clerk to carry ; but after 
they had left the court, he received them back from 
the clerk, and taking charge of them himself, brought 
them safely back to the monastery. The clerk, however, 
by his command, returned into the court, in order to 
give attentive ear to any further proceedings of Ivo, in 
regard to the monastery lands. In the evening, after the 
court adjourned, as he was returning to Croyland, he 
was waylaid by three of Ivo's servants, who rushed 
out upon him just as he was about to cross our river 
Assendyk, struck him from his horse, and searched his 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 21 

wallet and his garments, for the charters, which they 
intended to seize, but finding they were not in his 
possession, they left him for dead, covered with wounds 
and bruises. After a while, he succeeded in crawling to 
a boat that happened to be going his way, and arrived at 
Croyland that night in a piteous condition. On hearing 
of this unprecedented malice on the part of our foe, I 
took our charters, and in order to guard against his 
devices, and other accidents, placed them in such safe 
custody, that so long as my life lasts neither fire shall 
consume, nor adversary steal them, our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and our blessed patron the most holy Guthlac, 
showing themselves propitious, and as I firmly believe, 
extending their protection to their servants. Within a 
fortnight afterwards, our said enemy, Ivo de Taillebois, 
was proclaimed an enemy to the king, in consequence 
of being engaged in the conspiracy against him, for 
which he was outlawed, and is still living in Anjou 
a banished man." * 

In contrast to the cruel and rapacious proceedings of 
the lawless baron, Ingulphus gratefully records the kindly 
offerings sent for relief of the distressed, by more chris- 
tian-like neighbours, after the calamitous fire. " Richard 
de Eulos, the lord of Burne and of Depyng, as being our 
faithful brother, and in time of our tribulation a most 
loving friend, gave us ten quarters of wheat, ten quarters 
of malt, ten quarters of peas, ten quarters of beans, and 
ten pounds of silver. Haco of Malton gave us, at the 
same time, twelve quarters of wheat, and twenty fat 
bacon hogs. Elsin of Pyncebek also gave us one hundred 
shillings in silver, and ten bacon hogs. Andhurst of 
Spalding gave us six quarters of corn, two carcasses of 
oxen, and twelve bacon hogs. Many others also presented 
us with various gifts, by which our indigent state was 
greatly relieved. May our Lord Jesus Christ write their 

* Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland. Translated by H. J. 
Riley. 



22 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

names in the Book of Life, and reward them with his 
heavenly glory. Nor should, among so many of our 
wealthy benefactors, the holy memory of Juliana, a 
poor old woman of Weston, be consigned to oblivion, 
who, ' of her want ' did give unto us ' all her living,' 
namely, a great quantity of spun thread, for the purpose 
of sewing the vestments of the brethren of our monas- 
tery." 

The lawless proceedings of Ivo de Taillebois towards 
the monks of Croyland were much on a par with those 
of the Norman barons, his compeers, whose oppressions 
rendered it necessary for their inferiors, in order to obtain 
justice, to carry their causes into the king's court, then 
called Curia Regis, where the sovereign sat in person to 
receive appeals and pronounce judgment upon them. 
This court, which was a revival of the primitive ones held 
by the early British and Anglo-Saxon kings beneath the 
canopy of heaven, under some spreading oak, was always 
open for the redress of grievances, and contributed to the 
popularity of the regal office in England from remote 
antiquity. The Norman lawyers, however, contrived 
to introduce the payment of certain fines and fees as 
an indispensable prelude to the removal of causes and 
appeals by plaintiffs into Civria Regis* 

Sorry I am to be compelled to record that William no 
sooner found himself firmly established on his throne, 
and in no fear of rivalry in his realm from the attempts 
of his elder brother, than he forgot his promises to his 
oppressed English subjects, and instead of restoring the 
righteous laws of Edward the Confessor, continued to 
practise the vexatious system introduced by the late 
king, his father, especially in regard to the game laws. 
When Lanfranc took the liberty of remonstrating with 
him on the guilt and dishonour he was incurring, by 
forfeiting his royal word and acting in a manner so 
contrary to what he had promised, Eufus flew into a 

* Madox's " History of the Exchequer." 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 23 

furious passion, and asked Lis right reverend admonisher, 
" Whether he thought it possible for a king to keep all 
his promises ? " * 

The death of Lanfranc, which occurred in June, 1089, 
in the ninety-third year of his age, removed the only 
restraint to which the stormy passions of Rufus were ever 
known to yield. His loss was mourned as a national 
misfortune, so beneficial had been his influence over the 
mind and conduct of the king. To his honour be it 
recorded, he successfully exerted himself to put a stop 
to the barbarous and disgraceful custom, probably intro- 
duced during the Danish reigns of terror — of exporting 
young females to the continent, and selling them for 
slaves — a sin which had, doubtless, provoked the ven- 
geance of God against the people of the land where it 
was practised. The native of a country where learning 
and the polished arts were in a far more advanced state 
than in Normandy or England, f he greatly promoted the 
progress of civilization and education in both realms, and 
introduced a nobler style of architecture, of which Can- 
terbury Cathedral is a fine specimen. The attempts to 
introduce the elaborate music of the south into the ser- 
vices of the churches, which originated during the latter 
years of his superintendence of ecclesiastical discipline, was 
by no. means relished. The English choirs and congre- 
gations clung to the old Gregorian chants, to which they 
and their forefathers had been accustomed. The foreign 
innovations, as they were considered, instead of improving 
the harmony of the choral services, were the cause of the 
greatest discord, and in many instances led to scenes 
of sacrilegious violence, even more frightful than the 
disgraceful riots that have recently taken place in 
one of the metropolitan churches on the score of 
ceremonies. Thurstan, the newly appointed abbot of 
Glastonbury, who had lately been translated thither from 
Caen, in jSorrnandy, called in the aid of a body of soldiers 

* Eadmer ; Rapin. t Lanfranc was born and educated at Pavia. 



24 WILLIAM RUFUS. 



to settle the dispute between liim and his monks, who 
insisted on retaining their old familiar Gregorian chant.* 
This he despised, and ordered them to adopt that of 
"William, the organist of Feschamp. The monks persisted 
in using their old music, notwithstanding his requisition. 
One day, when they least expected such compulsory argu- 
ments, in the time of divine service, Thurstan directed the 
men at arms to send a shower of arrows among the 
choristers the moment they raised the Gregorian chant. 
The monks fled affrighted to the altar for refuge, and 
being pursued by the armed ruffians, two were butchered 
there, and fourteen grievously wounded. The rest of the 
community then facing about fought manfully with 
benches and candlesticks, and inflicting in their turn 
wounds and bruises, drove the soldiers and Norman 
abbot out of the church, and barricaded the doors against 
their return. f The king found it necessary, in conse- 
quence of the scandal caused by these sacrilegious scenes, 
to deprive Thurstan, and send him back to Caen ; but he 
finally repurchased the abbey, through the intervention of 
some of William Rufus's corrupt ministers, who, in an 
evil hour for England, succeeded Lanfranc in his confi- 
dence. The most pernicious of these was a Norman 
ecclesiastical lawyer of low birth, who could boast of no 
other appellative than Ralph, till Robert Le De Spencer, 
the king's domestic steward, put upon him, on account of his 
extortions, the cognomen of Flambard, or the Devouring 
Flame, J by which reproachful epithet he was ever after- 
wards distinguished, and it has passed into history as his 
surname. This adventurer was the son of an obscure priest 
of Bayeux ; and his mother, from whom he probably 
inherited his abilities, enjoyed the evil reputation of a 
sorceress. Being possessed of a handsome person, speci- 
ous manners, intimate acquaintance with the subtleties of 
the law, some literary power, for he was the first legal 

* William of Malmesbury ; Florence of Worcester, 
f Florence of Worcester ; William of Malmesbury. % Ordericus Yitalis. 



. 



WILLIAM HUFFS. 25 

writer of the age,* great financial talent, and still greater 
skill in flattery, he, from small beginnings, made his 
way rapidly in the court, and became first the king's 
chaplain, and then his treasurer, an office similar to what 
is now styled chancellor of the exchequer, or principal 
minister of finance. He took advantage of Kufus's 
love of pleasure to arrange everything despotically on his 
own authority, making many impertinent and vexatious 
accusations and pursuits in the king's name, of which he 
was ignorant, so that, says the chronicler, who records 
his evil doings, f " like a devouring flame he tormented the 
people, and turned the chants of the church into lamen- 
tations by the new practices he introduced into the 
country. He disquieted the young king by his perfidious 
suggestions, recommending him to revise the record which 
had been taken of all property through England, and 
to take the surplus that was found above that return. 
Having obtained the king's consent to this vexatious 
process, he had all the lands strictly re-measured, and 
thus added largely to the royal revenues at the expense 
of the happiness of the people and the popularity of the 
sovereign." It was, in compliance with the pernicious 
advice and representations of Flambard, that the king, 
under the specious pretext of not being able to name a 
suitable successor to Lanfranc as primate, retained the 
rich see of Canterbury and all its dependencies in his 
own hands ; and finding this a fruitful source of wealth, 
he pursued the same covetous practice in regard to 
all the other bishoprics and rich abbeys, as they became 
vacant by the deaths of their respective incumbents. 
This involved the king in endless disputes with the 
church, and deprived the poor, not only of the charity 
and judicious employment they had been accustomed to 
receive, but of pastoral instruction in their religious 

* He wrote a book on the Laws of England, now lost. Note by J. Forrester, 
translator of Ordericus Vitalis. See also Ingram. 

f Ordericus Vitalis. 



26 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

and moral duties, and increased the miseries the great 
changes of property had occasioned.* 

William Rufus is accused by the chroniclers of wasting 
in riotous living, and lavishing on profligate favourites, 
the wealth of which he wrongfully deprived the church. 
In justice, however, to his memory the reader should 
be informed that during nearly the whole of his reign 
he was engaged in various great public works, which 
were a constant drain on his resources. He completed 
the Tower of London, begun by his father in 1078, f 
adding thereto a castellated edifice between the "White 
Tower and the Thames, called St. Thomas's Tower, and 
made it both a citadel of defence from foreign invaders, 
and a stately royal residence, surrounding it with a wall 
and strong fortifications. He also built London Bridge, 
finished Battle Abbey, and rebuilt a great part of 
London, which had been unfortunately destroyed first by 
a conflagration and afterwards by a violent hurricane, 
the houses of the mechanics and humbler classes being 
at that time built of wood, thatched with reeds and 
straw. 

The natural love for architecture, which Rufus un- 
doubtedly inherited from both his royal parents, William 
the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, had been fostered 
and increased by the refined taste of his accomplished 
preceptor, Lanfranc, J and he availed himself of his royal 
power to gratify it most fully. 

" This William," records the chronicler Knyghton, 

* Ordericus Vitalis ; Saxon Chronicle. 

f S tow's Survey of London. 

J William of Sens, the architect portion and every ornament intended 
employed by Lanfranc in building to be introduced. He also invented 
Canterbury Cathedral, was a most many ingenious machines for load- 
exquisite artist, both in wood and ing and unloading the ships, for 
stone. He made a model of his pro- all the stone employed in these 
jected mighty work for the direction buildings was brought from Nor- 
of the workmen, minutely delineat- mandy. — Gervase of Canter- 
ing and describing every particular bury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 27 

"was much addicted to building royal castles and palaces, 
as the castles of Dover, Windsor, Norwich, Exeter, the 
banqueting hall at Westminster, and many others can 
testify. Nor was there a king of England before him 
that erected so many and such noble edifices." He also 
built and endowed the abbey of Bermondsey for a com- 
munity of brothers of charity whom he introduced. 
William Rufus had the good fortune to possess an able 
and skilful assistant in designing and working out his 
plans in Grundulph, bishop of Rochester, the builder or 
restorer of Rochester cathedral and castle. These noble 
and stupendous works, which were the glory of his short 
reign, have been accounted among his crimes, because 
people were severely taxed both for money and labour 
in their progress. 

The fine autograph beneath, written in 1088, the 
year after his accession, when he was on his good behavi- 
our, under the guidance of his venerable tutor, Lanfranc, 
proves how well this learned prince " could frame the 
letters that compose his mighty name," written withal as 
English William, not Norman Gruillaume. 



Charter of William Rufus to the Church of St. Andrew, Rochester, a.d., 10S 
From the Choice MS. Room, British Museum. 



WILLIAM EUFUS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Rufus's address to his nobles — Invades Normandy — Keeps court at 
Chateau d'Eu — Norman nobles flock to him — His munificence and 
popularity — King of France mediates peace between him and Eobert — 
They combine against Prince Henry — Adventures at the siege of Mount 
St. Michael — Rufus's reckless valour — Defends his saddle at peril of life — 
His facetious speeches — Personal traits — His illuminated portrait, (see 
frontispiece) — He returns to England, defeats Welsh and Scotch invaders 
— Enters Scotland — Gets into difficulties — Edgar Atheling mediates a 
peace — Malcolm performs his homage — Is royally entertained by Rufus — 
Rufus re-builds Carlisle— Introduces husbandmen and manufacturers— 
Breaks faith with Robert — They part in anger — He seizes church property 
— Petitioned by the monks of St. Augustine — Recognises his cousin 
Floriaco — Retains bishoprics and abbeys in his own hands — His reckless 
speeches — Public calamities attributed to him — His dangerous illness at 
Gloucester— In dread of death — His penitence and resolutions of amend- 
ment — Forces the primacy on Anselm — Converts Jew physician — Promises 
to be his godfather — Convert changes his mind — The perverse bishop — 
Rufus relapses into his evil ways — His dealings with the Jews — King of 
Scots invades England— His defeat and death — Generous conduct of Rufus 
to his children — Takes offence at Anselm* s sermons— Extravagance of his 
dress and fashions — Blames his chamberlain for the cheapness of his hose 
— His angry disputes with Anselm — Novel method of raising money — 
Conspiracy against his life revealed— Revolt of Mowbray, earl of North- 
umberland — Rufus defeats the Welsh, captures Mowbray, puts down the 
insurrection — Hangs his godfather. 

William Rufus, being now firmly established in his 
authority, summoned his nobles to meet him at Win- 
chester, in the autumn of 1089, and unfolded to them 
his desire of avenging the late attempt of his brother 
Eobert in the following speech from the throne : " You are 
well aware, Hlustrious lords, how my brother Eobert, in 
the first year of my reign, incited many of my liegemen 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 29 

to rebel against me, and conspired to deprive me of my 
life and crown, in which things he might perchance have 
succeeded, had not Divine Goodness averted the evil he 
meditated. And now the Holy Church beyond the sea 
addresses her complaints to me, and calls upon me to 
protect her from the ravening wolves to whom he aban- 
dons her ; for he who aims at usurping my dominions by 
fraud or force, takes no care to defend his own. There- 
fore, I require you, who were my father's liegemen, to 
support me loyally, manfully, and unanimously in my 
just enterprises. It behoves me, who inherit both the 
name and the crown of the great William, to pursue 
zealously the same course he did for the restoration of 
domestic peace and good order in Normandy. We ought 
not to suffer dens of robbers to exist there, to harass the 
well disposed and ruin the abbeys. Counsel me then, my 
valiant peers, as to what ought to be done under these 
circumstances : my desire being, if you approve it, to lead 
an army into Normandy, to make reprisals for the 
mischief which my brother, without any provocation, 
devised against me ; and I purpose to succour the church 
of God, to protect widows and orphans, and punish 
robbers and murderers, with the sword of justice/'* The 
warlike barons, without pausing to inquire how these 
high sounding professions of sympathy for the oppressed 
church in Normandy agreed with the king's aggressions 
on the see of Canterbury, enthusiastically applauded, 
and promised to support him in his enterprise. William, 
accordingly, crossed the Channel the last week in 
January, 1091, and landed in Normandy. Duke Eobert 
and his nobles, who were engaged in the siege of Conches, 
were greatly troubled at the news of his arrival, broke up 
their camp, and hastily retreated to Eouen. All the 
fortresses on the sea coast immediately submitted to king 
William, who established himself at Chateau d'Eu, where 
he kept court in royal pomp. Almost all the Norman 

* Ordericus Vitalis. 



30 WILLIAM RUFUS, 

nobles came to pay their compliments to him and offer 
him presents, in the expectation of receiving still greater 
in return. Their example was followed by the Bretons, 
the Flemings, and even the French, who resorted to him 
in crowds to share his hospitality and his gifts, of which 
he was profusely lavish. They admired his great magni- 
ficence, and extolled him far above their own princes, 
for his wealth and generosity.* 

Robert, who was destitute of money or the means of 
raising an efficient military force to compete with his 
brother's victorious troops, besought his suzerain and old 
familiar friend, Philip, king of France, to come to his 
assistance. Philip marched a powerful army over the 
frontier, but the large bribes of William disarmed him, 
and he confined his good offices to offers of mediating a 
peace, of which he proposed to be the umpire. He 
exhorted the royal rivals " to have an amicable meeting, 
kiss and embrace each other, as became Christian princes 
and brethren, instead of engaging in deadly warfare, and 
shedding the blood of their relations and friends." A 
pacification was effected, manifestly to William's advan- 
tage. He kept possession of St. Vallery, and all the 
Norman castles he had acquired, engaging to assign 
an equivalent in England to Eobert, to pay him 
an annual pension of three thousand crowns, and 
pardon and restore those who had taken part in 
the late insurrection. Robert, in return, consented to 
deprive Edgar Atheling of the estates and refuge he 
had given him in Normandy. It was then solemnly 
covenanted that Robert should continue to enjoy Nor- 
mandy, and William England, unmolested, during the 
term of their natural lives, each appointing the other for 
his successor, in case of leaving no lawful issue, so that 
the survivor would unite and reign over both realms, f 
Henry, their youngest brother, considered himself treated 

* Ordericus Vitalis, 
f William of Malmesbury ; Henry of Huntingdon ; Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFIS. 31 

with contempt, because he was not named in the treaty. 
Robert persisted in withholding the pledge on which 
he had advanced his five thousand pounds to fit out 
the expedition against England, and now William, 
to punish him, deprived him of his English posses- 
sions.* Driven to desperation by finding himself left 
destitute, Henry seized the strong isolated fortress of 
Mount St. Michael, garrisoned it with a troop of daring 
adventurers, and making frequent predatory sorties, became 
the terror of the whole neighbourhood. The fortress was 
deemed impregnable, being perched on a lofty rock, which, 
by the influx of the tides, was twice a day cut off from 
the mainland, and surrounded with waves. Robert and 
"William, making common cause against Henry, united 
to besiege him in his eyrie, and so effectually prevented 
him and his company from obtaining supplies that they 
were soon in distress for water. Henry, on this, sent a 
reproachful message to Robert, representing the tortures he 
suffered from thirst, and inviting him, "if he desired his 
death, to come on like a valiant knight, and fight hand to 
hand with him in an open field, but not to slay him by so 
cruel an expedient as depriving him of water, which was 
the gift of God to all." f Robert's naturally kind heart 
being touched by this representation, he, in a truly 
chivalric spirit, ordered his troops to allow the besieged to 
supply themselves with water and provisions also. When 
this circumstance was related to Rufus, he scornfully 
observed, " You are a pretty person to carry on a siege, 
truly, when you indulge the adversary with food and 
drink." But Robert, with a burst of generous feeling, 
replied, " It were foul shame to me if I suffered my 
brother to perish with thirst ; and where shall we find 
another if we lose him?" J 

Though the sarcastic disposition of the Red King led 
him to scoff at the magnanimity of his eldest brother, on 

* William of Malmesbury. 
f Wace ; Malraesburv ; Ordericus Yitalis. % "William of Malmesbury. 



32 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

this occasion he distinguished himself during the siege 
by traits well worthy of the age of chivalry. One day, 
while he was reposing himself in his tent, he observed a 
small party of horsemen, who had just descended from St. 
Michael's Mount, and were prancing in pride on the plain 
with defiant gestures. His excitable temperament being 
stirred at this sight, he immediately called to arms, 
and springing on his fine new charger, which he had that 
morning purchased for fifteen marks, he, with his usual 
reckless hardihood, rushed forth, and impetuously attacked 
them. In consequence of having outstripped his followers, 
he was unsupported in his fiery charge, and was immedi- 
ately surrounded, his horse mortally wounded, and him- 
self pitched from his saddle by one of the knights whom 
he had assailed. It was impossible for the royal champion 
to recover himself, for his foot having caught in the 
stirrup as he fell, his head was dragged along the ground. 
While he was in this defenceless position, perceiving that 
the victor was drawing his sword to slay him, Rufus 
called out to him in an authoritative tone, " Hold, rascal ! 
I am the king of England." The whole party started 
at the well-known sound of his voice, and respectfully 
raising the prostrate monarch, offered him another horse, 
his own being slain. He leaped into the saddle without 
waiting for assistance, and casting a searching glance 
among his late antagonists exclaimed sharply, "Who 
unhorsed me ? " 

" It was I," intrepidly replied the knight who had 
performed the feat ; " I wist not you were a king ; I only 
took you for a soldier." * 

"By the crucifix of Lucca," exclaimed Rufus, "thou 
art a brave knight ! Follow me, and from henceforth 
thou shalt be my knight, placed on my roll, and marked 
to receive meet recompense for thy gallant deed.' 5 He 
took him into his service, and treated him with peculiar 
favour. 

* William of Malmesbury, 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 33 

On another occasion, during the siege of St. Michael, 
when riding between the rivers Ardenon and Coisnon, 
Rufus was surprised and surrounded by a party of 
Henry's knights. He fought with his wonted intrepidity, 
till his horse, receiving a thrust in the breast, from 
the lance of one of his assailants, reared and flung 
hiTYi backwards from the saddle, the girths of which 
giving way with the shock, it came to the ground with 
him. Recovering himself with his usual activity and 
presence of mind, Rufus sprang to his feet, and 
snatching up the saddle, used it as a shield, while he 
defended himself with his drawn sword till succour 
arrived. When his assailants were beaten off, one of 
whom had wounded him severely while endeavouring 
to wrest the saddle from him, his knights asked him, 
in surprise, "why he increased his peril by defending 
his saddle?" 

" Think ye," replied Rufus, " that I would allow mine 
adversary to carry it off, and boast like a fool-Breton 
that he had won my saddle from me, and point to it as a 
trophy of his valour ? I tell you it would have vexed me 
to my heart's core."* 

The portrait of "William Rufus, which forms the 
frontispiece of this volume, is from an ancient illumi- 
nated French chronicle, " Les Roys d'Angleterre." f 
It was probably executed on his accession to the throne 
of England in his thirty-first year, for it represents 
him with a slender, graceful figure, long oval face, and 
classical features ; an energetic but somewhat sarcastic 
expression of countenance ; bearing a striking resemblance 
to the engraving of his statuette in Montfaucon,J only at 
a maturer period of life, and before he had given way to 
those reckless habits of dissipation which proved no less 

* Wace ; Roman de Rou. 

t Cottonian MS. Vitellius, A. xiii ; British Museum. 

I u Monumens de la Monarchic Franchise," tome 1, plate 55, described 
Life of William Rufus, page 2. 



34 WILLIAM RTJFUS. 

injurious to his person than to his character. The original 
illumination is a miniature whole length, in his regal 
costume, a dalmatiea of blue velvet, sitting very closely 
to the shoulders, edged with pearls, and fastened in front 
with a jewel. His throat is bare ; it is long and finely 
moulded. Under his regal blue mantle he wears a scarlet 
gown, tightly belted to his waist in plaited folds. He 
is seated on a marble enamelled bench, probably intended 
for the King's Bench, then considered more sacred than 
the throne, as the fountain of royal justice. His attitude is 
imposing ; the right hand, with the monitory finger held 
up, renders the commanding cast of his features more 
impressive. In his left hand he holds a sceptre, or regal 
staff, of unusual length and weight, greatly resembling a 
lord mayor's mace, with a head ponderous enough to 
render it a formidable weapon of offence or defence, as 
occasion might, haply, demand. The regal robe, in 
which he is enveloped, is partially unfolded, as if for 
the purpose of displaying one very handsome leg, 
crossed over the other, in a closely fitting black velvet 
high boot, rather long and pointed at the toe, and 
slightly turned up. 

Quaint old Robert of Gloucester describes Rufus, in his 
rhyming chronicle, not as he was when this illumination 
was made, in the days of his early manhood and chivalry, 
but after intemperance had done its work in debasing 
all that was noble and knightly in his appearance and 
manners, and he had become bloated and vulgar : 

" Thick man lie was enow, and not well long ; 
Throughout red, with a great weem* well bound and strong ; 
Reinablet he was not of tongue, and of speech positive ; 
BofflingJ and most when in wrath, ready in strife." 

" Greatness of soul," observes William of Malmesbury, 

" was at first pre-eminent in this king, but in process of time 

* Abdomen. f No fluency of speech. 

J Loud, stammering, and thick of utterance, especially in anger. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 35 

became obscured. Vices instead of virtues insensibly crept 
into his bosom, and were so mingled, that it was difficult 
to distinguish them. At last, the desire after good grew 
cold, and the crop of evil increased to ripeness. He 
feared God but little, and man not at all. He was, when 
abroad, and in public assemblies, of supercilious look, 
darting his threatening eyes on the bystanders, and with 
assumed sternness and rough voice endeavouring to daunt 
such as presumed to contradict him." At home and at 
table with his intimate companions he gave loose to levity 
and mirth. He was a most facetious railer at anything 
he had himself done amiss, in order to encourage others to 
laugh at his faults, instead of treating them with condign 
censure. His eyes were of two different colours, fierce, 
sparkling, full of bright spots, and appeared to flash 
fire when he was angry, which was very often, for he 
was of a choleric, quick temper. He was addicted to 
swearing ; his favourite oath was " by the holy crucifix 
of Lucca/' an image which was then held in supersti- 
tious veneration, as the reputed work of Nicodemus. 

The aggressions of the Welsh and the Scotch, who 
had taken the opportunity of the warlike sovereign's 
absence from his realm, simultaneously to plunder the 
border counties, rendering his return necessary, he 
invited his brother Robert to accompany him to 
England, and assist in expelling these unwelcome 
visitors. Robert willingly complied, in the hope of 
receiving the promised equivalent for the Norman castles 
he had ceded to Rufus. 

Rufus, proceeding with his usual energy, as soon as 
he arrived in England, despatched one of his late father's 
experienced chiefs, Robert Fitz-Hamon, with an army to 
drive out the Welsh, in which he fully succeeded, and 
slew their leader. He took the field in person against 
Malcolm, king of Scotland, who had overrun the northern 
counties and advanced as far as Chester. The Scottish 
monarch and his predatory troops retreated before the 



36 WILLIAM RTJFTJS. 

terror of his arms. William Rufus pursued him into the 
Lothians, which at that time formed part of England. 
But when Malcolm crossed " The Great Water/' as the 
Forth, then the boundary of the two countries, was 
called, he was secure from the pursuit of the English and 
Norman troops. -William encamped on the southern side, 
having no means of crossing the swollen stream. After 
a brief pause the Scotch monarch sent a herald with 
this defiant message to the invading sovereign, "King 
William, I owe you nothing but war, if you are willing 
to try my strength in battle ; but to Robert, the eldest 
son of the late King William, I hm ready to pay 
the homage due to him." This was a virtual assertion 
that Eobert, not William, was king of England, for 
as duke of Normandy, he had no claim to homage 
from the king of Scotland. Offensive as such an 
intimation was to the proud and choleric Rufus, policy, 
and the advice of his military council, induced him to 
overlook the insult, and send Robert to endeavour to 
mediate an accommodation between him and Malcolm, 
for he found himself in evil case. The cold had set in 
unusually early, and his Norman troops, unaccustomed 
to the severity of a northern climate, and unprovided with 
warm clothing, destitute of proper shelter, and famishing 
with hunger, were dying fast, many valiant knights 
having been already frozen to death.* 

Robert, who was personally acquainted with Malcolm, 
and had, on a former occasion, acted as godfather to his 
eldest daughter, f undertook the mission, and, attended 
by a small retinue, crossed over with the returning herald. 
He was received with great courtesy by Malcolm, who 
entertained him honourably and hospitably for three 
days ; then conducted him to the top of a lofty hill, 
from whence he shewed him a large body of men 

* Ordericus Vitalis, 

f See " Lives of the Queens of England," vol. 1, Life of Matilda of 
Scotland. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 37 

encamped in the valley below ; and afterwards, from a 
spot between two hills, he bade him observe a still 
mightier army, occupying the level plain. " You see," 
observed Malcolm, " I am prepared to give a good recep- 
tion to your brother, if he dare to cross the Firth. 
I wish he may do so, for he will then feel the points of 
our spears. When Edward, king of England, gave me 
his niece Margaret in marriage, he endowed her with the 
Lothians, as her portion. King William, your father, 
confirmed what his predecessor granted to me, and com- 
mended me to you, his eldest son. The engagements 
made with you I am ready to renew, but I promised 
nothing, and I owe nothing to your brother."* 

Eobert, instead of taking so favourable an opportunity 
for asserting publicly the rights which were thus volun- 
tarily acknowledged by the king of Scotland, and uniting 
with him to crush William, of whose difficulties he was 
well aware, stood on honour, and fulfilled the mission 
he had undertaken, with implicit fidelity. He admitted 
the truth of all the king of Scotland had said, but under 
the existing state of circumstances, advised him to make 
peace with William, who was a nearer and more power- 
ful neighbour. 

Strange to say, a pacification was finally arranged, 
through the good offices of Kobert's friend, Edgar 
Atheling, who, as the representative of the ancient royal 
Saxon line, was the rightful king of England. This 
prince, whom William had so recently compelled Eobert 
to expel from Normandy, was then residing at the court of 
his brother-in-law, the king of Scotland, and though it 
was manifestly to his interest to foment instead of com- 
pose the differences between Malcolm and the Norman 
occupant of the English throne, was chosen as the umpire 
between the belligerent powers, and negociated an amicable 
treaty whereby Malcolm consented to perform homage 
to William for the English fiefs he held of him, in the 

* Ordericua Yitalis. 



88 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

same manner as he had formerly done to his father, and 
received in return the grant of twelve manors in 
Cumberland.* A meeting took place between the two 
kings, for the performance of the homage, on the borders 
of England. William entertained Malcolm royally, 
and at parting presented bim with magnificent gifts. 
He was also reconciled to Edgar Atheling, and invited 
him to his court.f 

While in Cumberland, William's attention was directed 
to the important object of establishing a strong garrison 
and fortress, for the purpose of defending his frontier 
from further aggressions. Carlisle, which had never been 
repaired since it was burned by the Danes, two centuries 
before, lay a desolate field of ruins, and the country round 
it a depopulated desert. The king now took immediate 
steps for repairing the castle, restoring the churches, and 
rebuilding the houses on a better scale. In this he 
availed himself of the plans and assistance of a Norman 
architect, named Walter, whom he observed engaged 
in repairing the priory of St. Mary; and being pleased 
with his talents, appointed him to the superintendence 
of his works, having first, as a matter of necessity, 
expelled the intrusive Danish chief, Dolfin, who had 
established himself with a band of predatory ruffians 
for many years in that neighbourhood, calling himself the 
sheriff, but was the terror of all travellers, and peaceably 
disposed persons. William placed a strong garrison 
in the castle, and sent a number of English husband- 
men, with their wives, children, and cattle, to colonize 
the depopulated district and cultivate the land. He 
bestowed great privileges on the new flourishing city 
he had re-edified ;$ he founded a priory at Wetheral, 
about six miles from Carlisle, and established a colony of 
Flemings in the neighbourhood, who practised and taught 
the useful arts of spinning and weaving, and contributed 

* Saxon Chronicle ; William of Malmesbury ; Walsingham. 
f Ordericus Vitalis. % Histories of Carlisle and Cumberland. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 39 

to extend the civilization of that wild country, where his 
name is still held in more respect than in any other 
part of his dominions. With equally beneficial and more 
lasting effects, than his excellent statistical arrangements 
produced in the north, William Rufus established colonies 
of his Flemish soldiers and their families on the borders of 
Wales, where they flourished, and imparted their valuable 
craft and industrious habits to their neighbours, and from 
the testimony of Greraldus Cambriensis,*it appears certain 
that the woollen manufactures, for which Wales has 
been for so many centuries celebrated, owe their origin 
to these colonies. 

Among the other improvements which were effected in 
England, by the Normans, that of horticulture may be 
mentioned. William of Malmesbury celebrates, not only 
the fruit, but the wine that was made in the vale of 
Gloucester at this period. "This vale," he says, "is 
planted thicker with vineyards than any other part of 
England, and they produce grapes in the greatest abund- 
ance and of the sweetest taste. The wine that is made in 
these vineyards hath no disagreeable tartness in the 
mouth, and is very little inferior to the wines of France."f 

The beverages most used in England, at that time, 
were cider, perry, mead, and beer. Hypocras morat and 
pigment, which were preparations of claret, spice, and 
honey, were confined to the banquets of the great. Two full 
meals in. the day were all that were then taken ; these 
were called dinner and supper, more properly breakfast 
and supper, for the first meal was taken at nine in the 
morning, the last at five in the afternoon. Compliance 
with these regulations was considered to ensure health 
and longevity, and gave rise to the following proverbial 
triplet : — 

" To rise at five, to dine at nine, 
To sup at five, to bed at nine, 
Makes a man live to ninety-nine." 

* Itinerary of Wales. f Pontefex Angl. 



40 WILLIAM RTJFUS. 

William Rufus, when in England, summoned his peers 
and prelates to attend him and meet in council to com- 
municate their advice three times a year, namely, at the 
great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, 
at Westminster, Winchester, Gloucester, or some other 
royal city. On these occasions he sat among them at 
the banquet, in his great hall, wearing his crown and 
royal robes : they also wore their state dresses.* 

Rufus feasted his brother Robert royally, and enter- 
tained him with tilts, tourneys, and music after their 
return from Scotland ; but as he neither gave him money 
nor lands, in fulfilment of the treaty into which they had 
entered in Normandy, Robert withdrew in disgust to his 
own dominions, taking his friend, Edgar Atheling, who 
had also been a partaker in the festivities of the English 
court, with him.f 

About this time the monks of St. Augustine's, Canter- 
bury, petitioned the king to permit them to elect a new 
abbot to supply the place of their late superior, Wido, who 
died early in the year 1091. William being in the enjoy- 
ment of the revenues of the monastery, not only refused 
to grant the licence they craved, but forbade them, under 
severe penalties, to proceed to an election, as it was his 
pleasure to retain the temporalities and authority in his 
own hands. The monks vainly remonstrated against this 
sacrilegious resolution, and implored him to be of an- 
other mind. They only got angry words in reply. Now, 
there was in that monastery a probationer, who had 
lately entered, named Hugh Floriaco, a Norman noble- 
man of the highest rank, a near relation and formerly 
a familiar friend of the king, who had won great 
renown for his valiant exploits in the wars of the Con- 
queror, and had also performed good service for the 
king, both in England and Normandy ; but having, while 
in attendance on him, during one of William's previous 

* Henry's History of England, 
f William of Malmesbury ; Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM KUFUS. 41 

visits to Canterbury, become deeply impressed by the 
preaching and holy lives of the monks of St. Augus- 
tine, he determined to renounce the world, lay aside his 

knightly accoutrements, distribute his estates and money 
among his relations and the poor, receive the tonsure, and 
take the cowl in their abbey. This notable convert, of 
whom the brethren were justly proud, was chosen by 
them to wait upon the king, accompanied, as he was 
still in his noviciate, by two of the most discreet and 
experienced members of the community, to use his 
influence with his royal kinsman to accede to their 
petition, or in case the king continued obdurate in his 
refusal, to endeavour to purchase his permission to proceed 
to the election of a new abbot. 

AYilliani, being the most excitable of men, was so deeply 
moved when he beheld his brave kinsman, who had so 
often fought by his side, both under his father's banner and 
his own, dressed in the habit of a monk, that he burst into 
a flood of tears, and, turning to the deputation, exclaimed 
with passionate emotion, " I do grant your petition/ and 
appoint this cousin of mine to be your abbot. I give the 
government of the abbey of St. Augustine to him. I 
forbid you to elect any other for your abbot, but him, 
whom unless you presently receive, I will burn your 
abbey to ashes/' 

The monks had not intended to choose the novice 
Floriaco for their superior, but seeing no remedy, they 
submitted to the royal nomination. Floriaco modestly 
demurred for some time, declaring "that it was an honour 
of which he was not only unworthy but incompetent, 
being an unlettered man, without either clerkly learning 
or ecclesiastical experience and judgment;" but the 
king would not be gainsaid, and the monks compelled 
Floriaco to accept the dignity which was thus forced upon 
him.* 

It was now hoped that the king, having made this 
* W. Thome's Chronicle. 



42 WILLIAM E.TJFUS. 

unexpected concession, might be prevailed upon to ap- 
point an archbishop of Canterbury ; but, finding him deaf 
to all entreaties and remonstrances, his bishops and 
clergy at last presented a petition, beseeching him to 
allow them to compose a prayer, to be used in all the 
churches of England, " That it might please Almighty 
Gfod to move his majesty's heart to choose a primate." 

" You may pray as you please," replied Eufus, bluntly, 
" but I shall do as I please." 

This uncourteous and uncompromising answer plunged 
the clergy in despair. The king had now thrown off all 
restraints, even of that conventional conformity to religion, 
behind which irreligion frequently masks itself. One day, 
fifty English gentlemen, having been falsely accused of 
some offence against the forest laws, after vainly protesting 
their innocence, boldly appealed to the test of ordeal by 
red hot iron. This they bore unshrinkingly ; and when, 
on the third day, the hands of every one of the accused, 
on being examined, were found perfectly unscathed, 
the king, who had conceived a great prejudice against 
them, being told that God had decided in their favour by 
this manifest token of their innocence, profanely replied, 
"What # then? God has nothing to do with passing 
judgment in this matter, which is not His business, 
but mine." 

Many fearful signs and portents of the wrath of Heaven 
against so impious a sovereign are gravely related by 
the chroniclers as occurring in his reign. A great earth- 
quake had been felt all over England. The church of 
Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, had been struck with 
lightning on the 5th of October, 1091, which cast down 
the tower, .and prostrated the rood and the image of the 
Virgin Mary, both of which were broken to pieces ; 
the shock was followed with a great volume of smoke, 
which filled the whole church, a marvellous evil smell, at 
the same time, pervading it, which no singing of the monks 
could, for a while, allay, nor all the incense and holy water, 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 43 

they used for the purification of the holy fane, mitigate. 
The Red King appears to have been considered account- 
able for the said bad smell, although as far off as Carlisle 
when it occurred. Among the other calamitous events of 
his reign, is mentioned the fearful hurricane of wind, 
which blew down six hundred houses in London, the roof 
of Bow church, and caused much damage to the royal 
works in progress at the Tower.* 

In the midst of a wild, reckless career of profligacy, 
a dangerous illness attacked Rufus in the beginning 
of Lent, 1093, while at his royal manor of Alvestone, 
in Gloucestershire. He removed in great haste to 
Gloucester, where he rapidly became worse, insomuch that 
very faint hopes of his recovery were entertained by his 
courtiers and physicians, while his subjects, both English 
and Normans, united, we are told, in praying for his death. 
The prospect of entering into eternity filled Rufus with 
mortal terror. He demanded priestly aid, and not con- 
tented with the time-serving crowd of ecclesiastics who 
haunted his court, flattered and consented to his godless 
doings, crying, " Peace, peace ! when there was no peace," 
he sent for the celebrated Anselm, abbot of Bee, a stern 
ascetic of saintly reputation, a disciple and friend of 
Lanfranc, withal, who chanced to be in attendance on the 
sick bed of another notable penitent, Hugh Lupus, earl 
of Chester, f Anselm obeyed the royal summons, but, 
being no respecter of persons, he spoke so plainly to Rufus 
of his sins, especially of his appropriation of the property 
of the church, that the sick monarch, trembling at the 
prospect of death, judgment, and the wrath to come, 
professed his penitence, and eagerly promised to comply 
with the only conditions on which absolution could be 
obtained — restitution of the contraband goods he had 
seized and detained in his own ungodly hands, including 
the rich benefices of Canterbury and Lincoln, which he 

* William of Malmesbury; Eadmer; Florence of Worcester ; Lingard. 
f Ibid. 



44 WILLIAM RUFITS. 

had repeatedly declared lie would never part with during 
life. But now his term of existence appeared to be rapidly 
drawing to a close, he saw things in a very different light, 
and his greatest fear appeared to be lest he should die 
while they were in his possession.* 

He promised everything Anselm suggested, and in his 
haste to rid himself of the reproach of holding the sees 
of Lincoln and Canterbury, he bestowed the first on 
Robert Bloet, his secretary, one of the most unscrupulous 
ecclesiastical lawyers in the court, and insisted on endow- 
ing Anselm with the primacy. To the surprise of every 
one, Anselm refused this mighty and unlooked-for prefer- 
ment. " It was incompatible," he said, " with his vows of 
poverty, humility, and seclusion from the world, to occupy 
so elevated a position. Besides, he was the subject of the 
duke of Normandy, and did not consider himself free to 
transfer his allegiance to another, "f 

William would listen to no excuses nor take any denial, 
but, calling for a ring and crozier, ordered Anselm to 
be brought to his bedside. Anselm was dragged thither, 
vi et armis, and the royal invalid passionately entreated 
him "to accept the archbishopric without further hesi- 
tation, lest, in consequence of the delay, his soul should 
be plunged into everlasting perdition by departing before 
he could rid himself of what he had so long sacrilegiously 
detained." But as Anselm was deaf to all persuasions, 
Rufus, who was determined to carry his own point, forced 
the ring on his finger, and the crozier into his reluctant 
hand, which was held there in spite of his resistance and 
earnest cries -"Noli Episcopali," and saluted him archbishop 
of Canterbury, while the assistants at this irreverent 
consecration sang the Te Deum.% Anselm continued for a 
long time to protest against accepting the dignity to which 
he was called, and when requested to state his objections, 
he replied : 

* Eadmer; Ordericus Vitalis. f Eadmer. 
% William of Malmesbury ; Henry's History of England ; Lingard. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 45 

"The plough of the church of England should be 
drawn by two oxen well matched, and of equal strength, 
the king and the archbishop of Canterbury; but if you 
yoke me, who am an aged and feeble sheep, with this 
king, who is a mad young bull, the plough will not go 
even."* The prediction of Anselm, founded as it was 
on profound judgment of character, was literally verified 
in the sequel, as we shall show. 

William's memorable sickness and penitence are thus 
noted by Robert of Gloucester ; 

11 So that in his wickedness to Gloucester he wend, 
And while he bided there sickness God him send ; 
In the year of grace, a thousand fourscore and thirteen, 
It was then that he lay sick at Gloucester, I ween, 
Then drad he sore of death, of his misdede thought sore, 
And promised to God he luthev\ would be no more, 
And that he wolde to England and holy church also, 
Be good and amend all he amiss did do." 

During the brief season that the religious excitement 
produced by the eloquence of Anselm lasted, which was 
only till he became thoroughly convalescent and out of 
danger, William amused himself by endeavouring to 
persuade his Jewish physician to become a christian, 
promising to bestow large rewards upon him, and to do 
him the honour of acting as his godfather, if he would 
renounce his errors and receive baptism. After much 
controversy, the Jew declared that the king's learning 
and eloquence had prevailed, and proclaimed himself a 
convert to Christianity. Highly elated at this achieve- 
ment, Rufus desired that the christening and admission 
of his convert into the christian church should be publicly 
performed, with the greatest solemnity, by the bishop of 
Gloucester. Unfortunately, the neophyte-elect, when 
brought in procession to the font, suddenly changed his 

* Ordericus Vitalis. 

f Luther is an old Saxon word, much used by Old Robert of Gloucester ; it 
means lewd, reckless, or profligate. 



46 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

mind, and refused to pronounce the baptismal vows or 
submit to the sacred rite, alleging " that lie had returned 
to his original faith, which nothing should induce him 
to abandon." 

The king tried arguments, persuasions, remonstrances, 
and threats in vain, and at last worked himself up into a 
furious passion, and ordered the bishop to baptise his 
recusant proselyte by force, or to inflict so severe a castiga- 
tion upon him as should compel him to fulfil his promise 
of renouncing the errors of Judaism, and becoming a 
christian. All present applauded the king's behest. 
But "the perverse bishop/' as the chronicler indig- 
nantly terms him, instead of complying with the royal 
requisition, calmly replied : " Nay, my lord king, an' he 
will not become a servant of God, he must e'en remain 
a servant of the devil, for there is no compelling a man 
to go to heaven against his will." A sentiment at least 
eight centuries in advance of the age, and which wittily 
exposes the futility of resorting to violent measures 
for the purpose of securing a reluctant and deceitful 
conformity to any mode of worship, to which either 
conscience or prejudice is opposed. 

William's zeal in behalf of the church was almost as 
ephemeral as his recusant Jewish proselyte's impressions 
in favour of Christianity, for, his good resolutions being 
only the effect of fear, as soon as he regained his health 
he threw off all religious feelings, and spoke and acted 
as an open infidel. 

The Jews having discovered that not only toleration 
but favour could be purchased by pecuniary offerings 
from the rapacious sovereign, propitiated him with so 
large a present in gold, that he swore "by St. Luke's 
face," one of his favourite oaths, that they were the best 
subjects he had, and invited them to hold a public dis- 
putation with his bishops, abbots, and learned clerks, on 
the differences of their respective creeds, promising them 
" that they should not only have fair play and a patient 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 47 

hearing, but that he would himself be present at the 
controversy as umpire, and if they got the better of his 
hierarchy and ecclesiastics in their arguments, so as by 
demonstrable proofs to obtain the victory, he would can- 
didly award it to them, and embrace Judaism himself."* 

Encouraged by the sarcastic proposition of their profli- 
gate sovereign, the Jews boldly dared the contest, which 
was entered upon with some uneasiness by the bishops and 
clergy, lest, peradventure, the cause of Christianity should 
suffer in consequence of any profane jests or ribald 
observations it might please the godless king to make in 
support of his Hebrew friends. Happily, these apprehen- 
sions were not realized. Rufus left the Jews to fight their 
own battle, and as the evidence of their own scriptures 
was successfully brought against them, they were of 
course completely defeated in the controversy, which 
produced, however, the following individual conversion 
among their own people. 

A young Jew, the son of one of the richest merchants, 
of that community in London, having enjoyed the 
opportunity, probably for the first time, of hearing the 
opposing but really harmonious doctrines of the old faith 
and the new openly debated, and the truths and early 
history of Christianity explained, dreamed St. Stephen 
appeared to him, and exhorted him to be baptised. 
The youth immediately complied with this injunction, 
and declared himself a christian. The misbelieving 
father, being much annoyed at his. son's conversion, 
tried every means of inducing him to abandon the 
christian profession, but in vain. As a last resource, he 
threw himself at the feet of the king, and entreated 
him to " compel his son to return to the faith of his 
own people and kindred. "f 

" But what advantages shall I gain thereby, an' I 
speak unto thy son, enjoining him to conform hinself to 
thy will in this matter ? " demanded Rufus. 

* Eadmer. f William of Malmesbury. 



48 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

The wealthy father proffered a present of sixty marks 
in return for the exertions of the royal influence with 
his son. Rufus, with unkingly avarice, greedily accepted 
the bribe, sent for the young man, reproved him for his 
undutiful conduct to his father, in becoming a christian 
against his wish, and commanded him to return to 
the faith of his own people. The youthful proselyte 
exclaimed in surprise, " Surely, my lord king, you are 
joking." 

" I joke with thee, thou son of ordure ! " rejoined 
the king haughtily, "begone, and obey my commands 
immediately, or, by the holy cross at Lucca, I will have 
thine eyes torn out/' As the young man firmly refused 
to apostatise, the king angrily drove him from his pre- 
sence, and summoned his father to pay the money he had 
promised. " But," remonstrated the Jew, " your grace 
has not fulfilled the condition by compelling my son to 
return to the faith of our people." 

" Nevertheless," replied the king, "I have made the 
attempt, and taken as much pains as if I had succeeded, 
and since I choose not my labour to go unrequited, I 
insist on having half the money I was promised." The 
old Jew was fain to submit to the royal composition, and 
pay the thirty marks demanded.* 

Many of the Red King's outrageous sayings and 
doings appear to have proceeded from the coarse humour, 
or as phrenologists would aptly enough term it, the 
mirthful destructiveness of his character, unsoftened by 
the refined delicacy of female society, and the gentle 
influence of a virtuous consort. He was occasionally 
urged by his prelates to marry, we are told ; but he 
positively refused to submit to the restraints of wedlock, 
and the decorum and stately ceremonials, which the 
introduction of a queen would necessarily impose on 
his court. 

While William was at Gloucester, a fresh dispute 

* Eadmer ; Historia Novorum ; William of Malmesbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 49 

broke out between him and Malcolm, king of Scotland, 
whom he had invited to visit him, and on his arrival 
refused to sec, because Malcolm resisted his requisition to 
perform homage then and there. William declared it was 
due, not only according to ancient custom, but by the 
conditions of the late treaty ; while Malcolm objected 
that the kings of Scotland had never been accustomed 
to perform the homage, except on the borders of the 
two realms. William, with characteristic arrogance, 
rejoined : " It is not usual for vassals to choose the place 
where to perform their devoir, but to obey the appoint- 
ment of the suzerain to whom such homage is due." 
Malcolm indignantly returned to Scotland, and rais- 
ing an army, invaded Northumberland ; but falling 
into an ambush, was slain by the steward of Robert 
Mowbray, earl of Northumberland. His eldest son, 
Prince Edward, was killed at the same time, and his 
army defeated with great slaughter. His consort, 
Queen Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, only 
survived this mournful news a few hours, leaving a young 
and helpless family surrounded by perils.* 

The royal orphans were with some difficulty rescued 
from the dangers which threatened them during the 
usurpation of their uncle, Donaldbane. They were 
conveyed to England by their maternal uncle, Edgar 
Atheling, who entreated a refuge for them, from King 
William. This prince generously extended his protection 
to the family of his deceased foe, and having placed the 
two young princesses, Matilda and Mary, in the convent 
of Eumsey, under the charge of their aunt Christiana, 
the abbess, he assisted Edgar Atheling with the means 
of driving out the usurper, and restoring the royal 
inheritance to the eldest surviving son of Malcolm and 
Margaret, f 

His naturally strong discrimination of what was right 
and what was wrong, not unfrequently got the victory 

* S. Dunelm ; Alured of Beverley ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Turgot. 
4 



50 WILLIAM RUFUS. 



over covetousness, and prompted him to righteous deci 
sions. As a case in point, we are told that on giving 
audience to a deputation of monks, who came to announce 
the death of their abbot, and present a petition from 
the fraternity, for leave to proceed to the election of a 
successor to his office, two of the monks, imagining that 
it would be as usual a matter of traffic, began to outbid 
each other for the appointment. "And what will you 
give to be made abbot ? " asked the king, turning 
to another of the brethren, who had remained silent. 
" Nothing," replied he, " for having embraced a profes- 
sion which enjoins poverty and humility, I have nothing 
to offer ; neither do I desire the pomp or dignities of 
this world." " Then thou art the man," exclaimed the 
king, " and shalt be their abbot, more worthy in thy 
poverty than they in their wealth."* 

In the autumn of 1094, Eobert having vainly 
demanded of "William the performance of the articles of 
their late treaty, sent him a formal defiance, branding 
him with the name of "a perjured knight," and re- 
nouncing peace and brotherhood with him for the time 
to come. William was at Hastings, assisting at the 
consecration of the stately abbey and St. Martin's 
church, commenced by his father, and completed with 
great magnificence by himself, when he received Robert's 
angry message, f This would have troubled him little 
had he not also learned that Robert had entered Eu, and 
was taking active measures for recovering the rest of his 
recent acquisitions in Normandy. In order to raise the 
needful supplies for engaging in the impending war, 
William made a large demand on the church. Robert 
Bloet had paid him £2000 from the first fruits of 
Lincoln, which encouraged him to demand the like 
sum from Anselm, the newly appointed archbishop 
of Canterbury. Anselm objected " that he had found 
everything in his diocese in a state of decadence, 
* Polychronicon. fEadmer; Brompton ; William of Malmesbury. 



i 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 51 

owing to the misrule and extortions practised by the 
royal commissioners, during the unprecedented time 
the see had remained vacant/' and earnestly requested 
the king to allow him to call a synod to consider 
the best means of putting an end to the abuses 
and disorders that had been introduced. William 
angrily refused, and reiterated his demand with threats. 
Anselm, so far from being a primate after his own 
mind, had given him and his courtiers great offence, 
by preaching against their extravagant and effeminate 
fashions of wearing long hair, curled and braided 
like women ; garments of gaudy colours and expensive 
materials, sweeping the ground ; hanging sleeves falling 
over their hands ; and above all, the absurdity of 
shoes with long curved points, extending twelve and 
sometimes eighteen inches beyond the feet, stuffed with 
tow, and sometimes turned up and fantastically twisted 
round their legs and fastened to their knees with gilded 
chains.* This tasteless fashion, which had been invented 
by Fulke Eechin, earl of Anjou, to conceal the deformity 
of his club feet, had been introduced into England by one 
Robert, surnamed, in consequence, The Horned, the beau 
and leader of the mode in the court of the Red King, 
and became the rage, being adopted by all who could 
afford to make themselves ridiculous. Rufus was exces- 
sively lavish in his wardrobe expenses, and entirely 
without taste or judgment in such matters. One morn- 
ing, when putting on a new pair of nether garments, 
then called hose, he asked his chamberlain what they 
cost. " Three shillings," was the reply. " Out upon 
you," exclaimed Rufus, angrily, "are hosen of that 
price fit for a king to wear ? Begone, and bring me a 
pair that shall cost a mark at the least." The chamberlain 
took the garment, to the cheapness of which the king had 
objected, away, and being unable to procure anything 
of a higher price, brought him another pair, not so 

* "William of Malmesbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 



good, but told the king they had cost a mark. 
"■Aye," cried the king, "these are suitable to royal 
majesty." The chamberlain, perceiving that the king 
was no judge either of the quality or the current price of 
apparel, charged him from that time an exorbitant price 
for everything he wore, and thus enhanced the profits of 
his office, for the more he charged, the better was his royal 
master satisfied with his purchases.* 

Old Robert of Gloucester has thus versified the anecdote 
in his rhyming chronicle : 

" As his chamberlain him brought, as he rose at day, 
On the morning, to wear a pair of hose of say,\ 
He asked ' what they costened V ' Three shillings/ the other said. 
' Fy a dibbles ! ' quoth the king, l when saw ye such vile deed, 
King to wear any clothj but it costened more ! 
Buy a pair of a mark, or thou shalt rue it sore.' 
A worse pair I wis the other sooth him brought, 
And said they ' cost a mark, and at that price were bought.' 
< Yea, bel ami/ quoth the king, ' they were well y bought, 
In this manner serve me, or thou shalt serve me not.' " 

Rufus was so highly exasperated, both at Anselm's 
sermons and his excuses for declining to pay the sum he 
expected from this reluctant primate, that he caused him 
to be arrested the first day he entered Canterbury, as he 
was going in procession to the cathedral, for not having 

* William of Malmesbury. 

f Say, an ancient fabric of silk and woollen. The name is derived from sole, silk. 

% This explains that the price of vagance demanded. Shakespeare's 
the cloth of which his hose were made well known epigrammatic ballad — 
was three shillings a yard, not that "King Stephen was a worthy peer, 
the whole cost of the hose was three His breeches cost him but a crown, 
shillings ; for, as a matter of course, He held them sixpence all too dear, 
the embroidery, making, and trim- With that he called the tailor loon "— 
ming, would be the principal expense, was probably the fragment of an old 
and amount to a much larger sum than political stave, composed by some 
even the mark named by the king as shrewd partizan of Stephen, and in- 
the price of cloth meet for his wear, tended to mark the contrast between 
and which probably had the effect the rigid economy and soldier-like 
of raising the value of the best quality plainness of the nephew and the reck- 
to the standard he had in his extra- less extravagance of his roval uncle. 



i 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 53 

contributed, as in duty bound, tlio sum required by 
the crown for the expedition against the duke of 
Normandy. 

Anselm was only liberated on his promising to do his 
best to comply with the royal requisition. With great 
difficulty he raised five hundred pounds, which he brought 
to the king, who was still at Hastings. Rufus angrily 
refused to accept so small a sum. 

" Do not, my lord, spurn my humble offering/' replied 
Anselm, meekly. "It is the first, but it may not be the 
last you will receive from your archbishop.* Use me like 
a freeman, and I will devote myself to your service ; but 
if you treat me like a slave, you will have neither me nor 
mine." 

" Begone!" cried the king, in a rage; " I want neither 
thee nor thine." Anselm withdrew, and distributed the 
sum that had been so scornfully rejected to the poor. 
When Rufus heard this, he repented not having 
accepted it himself, and sent word to Anselm by the 
other bishops, who had come to take leave of him at 
Hastings previous to his embarkation for Normandy, 
"that if he would give him a thousand pounds, paying 
five hundred down, and five hundred more within a given 
time, he would be reconciled to him." The archbishop 
begged the mediators to represent to the king, 
" that he was without money himself, and his vassals, 
impoverished by the royal exactions, were unable to 
supply him with the sums required." Rufus received the 
excuse with a burst of rage. " Tell him," exclaimed he, 
"that I hated him yesterday, hate him more to-day, 
and shall hate him more and more bitterly the longer 
I live. Let him begone ! He need not wait here to give 
me his blessing when I sail — I will not receive it." f 

Rufus sailed for Normandy, unblessed, in the middle 
of Lent, with his puissance, and through some unaccount- 
able coincidence, his usual good luck failed him. The 

* Eadmer. f Ibid. 



54 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

king of France declared in Robert's favour, and came 
in person to his succour, at the head of a numerous army, 
and took the town of Argenton and several other places. 
Eufus retired to Chateau d'Eu, much crestfallen ; and 
seeing small prospect of vanquishing Robert and his 
powerful ally by force of arms, prevailed on the king 
of France, by bribery, to retire from the contest. 
The means whereby he procured the money for 
this purpose were ingenious. He had ordered an 
army of 20,000 men to be levied in England, for 
his support; but when they were ready to embark at 
Southampton, each soldier was ordered to pay to the 
king's commissioners the ten shillings he had received 
for his subsistence in foreign parts from his lord, or 
the person who had been compelled to furnish men for 
the service of the crown, and were then disbanded.* 
After this disgraceful proceeding Rufus returned to 
England, and renewed his quarrel with Anselm. 

Christendom was at that time distracted with the 
memorable schism of pope and anti-pope. Urban II. 
was the orthodox pontiff; Clement, the anti-pope, 
who had been set up in rivalry to him for political 
purposes, by the Emperor Henry IV. of Germany. 
England had not as yet acknowledged either, but 
Anselm considered his spiritual obedience due to Urban, 
and requested the king's permission to go to Rome and 
receive his pall from him. Rufus, who wisely refused 
to allow of any foreign interference in the appointment 
of his prelates, was highly offended at the proposition, 
and denounced the intention as treason. Anselm re- 
ferred the dispute to a council of bishops and nobles, 
which met at Rockingham, March 11th, 1095, and after 
long deliberation declared "that unless he yielded 
obedience to the king, they would not acknowledge 
his authority as their primate." As Anselm persisted 
in his resistance to the royal will, the bishop of 

* Eadmer ; Ordericus Vitalis ; Alured of Beverley. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 55 

Durham advised the lords to take away his staff and 
ring, and banish him the realm. They refused to do so, 
declaring it to be contrary to law and justice. " If this 
counsel don't please you, what will ? " demanded Poifus ; 
and finding them still silent, sternly added, "While I 
live I will not suffer an equal in my kingdom."* 

The nobles then adjourned the assembly till eight 
days after Whitsuntide, whereupon the king banished 
Anselm's able counsellor and chief adviser, Baldwin, 
thinking he might then prevail over his obstinacy, 
and in the meantime privately despatched two of 
his chaplains, Gerard and William, to Eome, to 
make a private agreement, offering to acknowledge 
Urban for pope if he would consent to the deposition 
of his contumacious primate, and send a pall, for him to 
bestow on whomsoever he pleased. Urban, delighted at 
the overture, promised everything, and sent the bishop 
of Alba into England as his legate. f The legate passed 
through Canterbury without taking any notice of the 
archbishop, and hastened to the court, where he was< 
warmly welcomed by the king, who issued his royal 
proclamation, commanding all his subjects to acknowledge 
Urban as lawful pope. But when in return for this 
concession the legate was required to proceed to the 
deposition of Anselm, and to put the king in posses- 
sion of the promised pall for the investiture of a new 
archbishop of Canterbury more to his mind, he replied 
" that the pope could not consent to the deprivation 
of so dutiful a son, but on the contrary enjoined the 
king to be reconciled to him for the health of his 
soul." Eufus, with some difficulty, allowed himself to be 
persuaded, and the pallium was bestowed on Anselm in 
the cathedral of Canterbury by the legate, with great 
pomp, having been sent by the pope for him and none 
other 4 The nuncio was also clever enough to obtain the 

* Eadmer ; Brady. f Eadmer ; Malmesbury. 

X William of Malmesbury. 



56 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

renewal of the long suspended payment of the " Rome- 
scot " or Peter's pence.* 

Such was the hatred of the king to Anselm, that he 
could not listen to his name with patience. When some 
one, praising the unworldly spirit of the primate, 
declared that Anselm loved nothing but his God, " I 
hope," said the king, with a sarcastic laugh, " you except 
the revenues of the see of Canterbury, of which he is 
so tenacious. Howbeit, from henceforth, I will not allow 
any one to be archbishop of Canterbury but myself." 
On another occasion, one of the courtiers mentioned a 
very learned and holy ecclesiastic, as one meet to 
become successor to the pope. " What manner of man 
is he ? " inquired Eufus. " Somewhat like Anselm," was 
the reply. " Like Anselm ! " exclaimed Rufus, "then by 
the holy crucifix of Lucca, he is good for naught ! " 

During the king's unsuccessful campaign in Normandy 
a conspiracy had been formed against him by his 
northern barons, headed by that pQwerful magnate, 
Robert Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, who was 
possessed of 280 English manors. f The distinction 
gained by the great service of slaying Malcolm, king 
of Scotland, and driving the invading Scottish army 
out of England, had so puffed Mowbray up that he 
determined to act independently of his own sovereign, 
and obey no law but his own pleasure. He and his fol- 
lowers established themselves in the impregnable castle 
of Bamborough, acted as freebooters by land and pirates 
by sea, according as opportunity served. Among his 
other exploits he seized four large Norwegian trading 
vessels, called canards, bound for the port of London, and 
violently despoiled the unfortunate merchants of all their 
freight. They made their way in great distress to the 
court, laid their complaints before the king, and de- 
manded redress for this violation of the commercial 
treaty, which had encouraged them to bring their 

* Eadraer. f Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 57 

goods to England. Hufus sent his commands to the 
rapacious earl, to restore the goods and make full com- 
pensation to the merchants for the injury he had done 
them ; but as Mowbray vouchsafed no attention to the 
royal requisition, he generously paid it out of his own 
treasury* — a politic as well as a noble action on the 
part of the king, for the hostility of the Scandinavian, 
nations had proved too bitter a scourge to England 
to be lightly provoked, while their friendship had become 
a source of commercial prosperity and reciprocal benefit 
to the now kindred races, who had almost within the 
memory of men been the deadliest of foes. Mowbray, 
when summoned to appear before the king in person to 
answer for his offence, treated the order with contempt. 
Rufus, not being of a temper to brook any disregard 
of his authority, marched against him at the head of an 
army with the declared purpose of chastising him for 
his insolence, a threat far easier uttered than carried into 
execution.! 

Perils of which Rufus had no suspicion surrounded 
him and beset his path from the moment he entered 
into the wilds of Northumberland. When, however, 
he was approaching the territories of the earl, sir 
Gilbert de Tunbridge, a valiant young knight, son 
of Richard de Bienfaite, count of Brionne, drew him 
aside, and throwing himself at his feet, in great 
agitation, said, " I beseech you, my lord and king, to 
pardon my guilt, and I will disclose something that will 
preserve your life." Rufus hesitated a moment ; then, 
graciously assuring him of pardon, bade him speak 
out. " Stay your march, noble king," said the penitent 
conspirator, " and enter not the wood that lies before us. 
Your enemies lie in ambush there for the purpose of 
slaying you. We who are in a secret confederacy against 
you have sworn to compass your death.":}: 

On receiving this intimation, the king halted, and 
* Ordericus Vita lis. f Ibid. J Ibid. 



58 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

obtained full information of the traitorous conspiracy, 
and the members of whom it was composed, and was 
thus enabled to circumvent the assassins, who were 
lying in wait for him. He and his army having escaped 
the ambuscade, proceeded to besiege Bamborough 
castle. Perceiving, however, the impossibility of re- 
ducing that impregnable place, William ordered a rival 
fortress to be erected in the neighbourhood, for the shelter 
of his own adherents, and gave it the appropriate name 
of Malvoisin. It was in such close vicinity to Bamborough 
that Mowbray had a full view, from his battlements, of 
the progress of the works, and was greatly annoyed at the 
magnitude and celerity with which they proceeded. Mean- 
time, Rufus was not inactive. He took Tynemouth, and 
Newcastle, capturing therein the brothers of Mowbray, 
and many other prisoners of note. Then darting across 
the country into "Wales, he drove back the predatory 
bands, which had taken advantage of the northern rebel- 
lion, to overrun the marches, fortified the border castles 
strengthened the garrisons, and multiplied the means of 
defence. * 

When he returned to the siege of Bamborough, he had 
the satisfaction of learning that his formidable rebel, 
Robert Mowbray, had been lured out of his stronghold, 
and captured. Rufus immediately summoned the 
countess Matilda, who had only been married to Mow- 
bray three months, to a parley. When she appeared on 
the battlements, Mowbray was led under the walls in 
fetters, with an executioner by his side, and the lady 
was assured that unless she surrendered the castle 
to the king, her husband's eyes would be put out — 
she would see her husband deprived of sight. Matilda 
was reluctant to comply with this requisition, but 
the tenderness of the woman, and the affection of the 
wife, were not appealed to in vain. She ordered the 
gates to be thrown open, and admitted the royal troops, 

* Ordericus Vitalis ; William of Malmesbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 59 

without a moment's hesitation, and thus preserved her 
lord from the frightful doom with which he was 
menaced;* but instead of being restored to her, he 
was incarcerated in Windsor Castle, where he remained 
for upwards of thirty years, surviving Rufus nearly 
twenty-five. His nephew saved his own life, and pur- 
chased the favour of the king, by revealing the secret 
history of the confederacy, and betraying the names of the 
conspirators. Eufus thus learned that its object was to 
depose and put him to death, and place his cousin, 
Stephen, earl of Aumale, on the throne. Infuriated at 
the extent of this treason, he ordered the arrest of all 
the parties who were within reach. They were arraigned 
at Salisbury, and several persons of the highest rank 
suffered cruel and ignominious punishments. He did not 
even spare his own godfather, "William de Alveric, the son 
of his aunt, and sewer of his household, who was accused 
of being deeply implicated in this plot ; notwithstand- 
ing their near relationship, and the ties of spiritual 
affinity which connected them, this luckless nobleman was 
sentenced to be scourged through the town of Salisbury, 
and hanged. 

Osmund, the good bishop of Salisbury, who attended 
Alveric to the scaffold, testified the greatest sympathy for 
him, and bore witness that his confession had fully exon- 
erated him from the guilty design that had been imputed 
to him. Alveric, who was scourged before every church 
in Salisbury, divided his garments among the poor who 
followed him, and walked naked to the place of execution, 
covered with blood, but edifying every one with his 
courage and the fervour of his devotion. When he 
arrived at the gallows, he exclaimed aloud, " God help 
me, as I am guiltless of the foul crime for which I am 
condemned. I know full well that the sentence will not 
be revoked, but I wish all men to be certified of my 

* Lingard ; History of England. This lady was a great Norman heiress, 
Matilda de L'Aigle. 



60 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

innocence."* The compassionate bishop, after com- 
mending his soul to heaven, and sprinkling him with holy 
water, departed. The executioner performed his office 
amidst the tears and lamentations of the people ; but 
Alveric, himself, underwent his sentence without a sigh, 
leaving an example of the most heroic courage. f 

Well, as he could write, the Red King did not always 
put himself to the trouble of affixing his sign manual 
to his charters and deeds of endowment, for in the year 
1096, he gave the abbey of Tavistock, J seisin of the land 
or manor of Wlurinton by an ivory hafted knife, per 
cultellum eberneum ; which knife was laid up in a 
shrine at that abbey, and had inscribed on its haft 
words signifying that donation. 

* William of Malmesbury ; Florence of Worcester ; Saxon Chronicle ; 
Sim of Dunelm ; J. Brompton. 

f Ibid. 

J Observations on Ancient Methods appendant." The handle of this 
of Conveyance in England ; by Henry knife is made of horn, and is nearly 
Ellis, Esq., F.R.S. Archeeologia, vol. black. The date of the charter, 1135, 
xvii. — " Many donors it should seem, proves that it was granted in the last 
desirous of making their conveyances year of the younger brother and 
as firm as possible, when written successor of William Rufus, Henry 
charters came into more general use, I. This curious relic of the Anglo- 
united the more ancient and simple Norman era is in the custody of the 
form with them. Hence, we find, Master of Trinity College, Cam- 
occasionally, that such articles were bridge. Du Cange, in his Dictionary 
sometimes attached to deeds like of Mediae val Latin, states, under the 

word Investituteniy " tbat lands were 



" In the archives of Trinity Col- often assigned and deeds executed by 
lege, Cambridge, a deed is still the transmission of a knife, or by 
preserved, to which a knife is laying a knife on an altar." 



WILLIAM BUFUS, 



CHAPTER III. 

Normandy pledged to Eufus by Robert — Heavy taxes to raise the sum — 
Remonstrances of clergy— Rufus takes possession of Normandy — Robert 
joins the crusade — Maine refuses to receive Rufus — His altercation with 
Helie, count of Maine — He invades France — Returns in triumph to England 
— Fresh disputes with Anselm — Their last interview — Anselm departs for 
Rome — Pope censures Rufus — Scornful letter of Rufus in reply — Daring 
abduction of his premier, Ralph Flambard — Rufus' s price for a bishopric — 
His venturous voyage and chivalric emprize to succour his friends in Maine 
— Narrow escape of his life before Maiet — Eaises the siege— Capture of 
his antagonist, count Helie — Their interview — Rufus gives him his liberty 
— Rufus' s generosity to captive knights — Mans submits to him — He returns 
to England — His first court in "Westminster Hall — He quells fresh revolt 
in Maine — Brilliant anticipations of extended sway — Robert redeems 
Normandy with the portion of his bride — Rufus desires to retain his pledge 
— Marvellous signs and portents — King's frightful dream — Ominous dreams 
and visions of monks about Rufus — His facetious remark on abbot Serlo's 
letter — Determines to hunt in the New Forest — New arrows presented to him 
by an armourer — He gives the sharpest to "Walter Tirel with a compliment 
— Invites Tirel to accompany him to the chase — The two stags — TirePs fatal 
shot — The king slain — Legends, predictions, omens, and localities connected 
with his death — His corpse conveyed to Winchester in a charcoal cart — 
His hasty obsequies— Joy of the people for his death — His tomb — Exhuma- 
tion of his remains — Relics found in his coffin — Last resting place for his 
bones — Memorial of the spot where he fell. 

The eager desire of WiUiam Rufus to extend his sceptre 
over Normandy was at last gratified. Eobert becoming 
suddenly infected with the epidemic fever for crusading, 
with which the exhortations of Pope Urban II. had 
inspired an enthusiastic company of the princes of the 
West, took the cross and declared his intention of assisting 
in the liberation of Jerusalem. Destitute, however, of 
the necessary funds for undertaking this romantic 



62 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

expedition, lie requested "William to assist him with a 
loan, to enable him to accomplish his desire. 

" Go to your friend, the king of France/' was William's 
sarcastic reply. On this repulse Robert applied to 
prince Henry, who lent him a thousand marks ; then 
William, not to be outdone by his younger brother, 
offered to advance ten thousand marks, on condition 
of his surrendering the duchy of Normandy and his 
other appanages, as pledges for the repayment of that 
sum, at the end of five years. Robert eagerly closed 
with these terms. William, in order to raise the 
money, imposed so heavy an impost on his clergy, 
that they came to the court in a body, headed by 
the bishops and abbots, to protest against it, declaring 
the impossibility of raising what was demanded, without 
ruining their tenants, reducing their husbandmen to 
beggary, and driving them away altogether. The 
king's rapacious treasurer, Ralph Flambard, replied, 
" Have you not shrines adorned with gold and silver, 
full of dead men's bones ? " The churchmen wisely 
preferred the alternative of sacrificing these useless 
decorations, and melting their plate, to rack-renting 
their poor tenants. The nobles and gentry, who 
had no such resources, found themselves under the 
necessity of oppressing their vassals and underlings, 
in order to make up the money demanded by the 
crown. 

Intent only on securing the extension of his dominions, 
William sailed for Normandy early in September, and 
received a formal surrender of Robert's dominions, in 
return for the money which had cost both his English 
and Anglo-Norman subjects so dear. Maine was 
included by Robert as a part of his pledge, but it 
was no longer in his power to transfer. His title 
having been from the first most illegal, and only 
substantiated by the weight of his conquering father's 
arms, the patriotic Manceaux had taken advantage 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 63 

of the distracted state of Normandy, to throw off his 
yoke, and the earldom was now in the possession 
of the brave and chivalric Helie de la Fleche, the 
nephew of Hubert, the last earl of their ancient here- 
ditary line,* which he had, for several years, defended 
valiantly against his Norman adversaries. So well 
established did he consider himself, that when the pope 
exhorted him to imitate Robert's example by joining the 
crusade in 1096, he publicly took the cross. 

On the arrival of William Rufus in Normandy, to take 
possession of his brother's dominions, Helie presented 
himself at his court at Rouen, and thus addressed him : 
" Most noble king of England, I have, in obedience to 
the pope, taken the cross and devoted myself, with many 
illustrious pilgrims, to the service of Grod, with intent to 
share in the expedition to Jerusalem. I therefore request 
your friendship and alliance, that I may undertake this 
journey in peace." 

" Go where you please," replied Rufus, bluntly. " I 
have no wish to prevent you ; but yield up to me the 
city of Mans, with the whole of the earldom, which my 
father and my brother held."f 

" I hold my earldom and its appurtenances by in- 

* Hubert, earl of Maine, left three Helie de la Fleche animated the 
sisters— namely, Gersede, who was Manceaux to resistance, and per- 
married to the marquis of Liguria ; suaded them to invite his cousin of 
Margaret, who was betrothed to Liguria to reign over them. They 
Robert of Normandy ; and Paula, did so, but the eldest son preferred 
the wife of the count de la Fleche, retaining his paternal inheritance, 
and mother of Helie. Though and made over his claims on the earl- 
Margaret died before her marriage dom of Maine to Hugh, his younger 
was completed, Robert claimed the brother, a prince of an indolent tem- 
inheritance as her widower, and by per, who, perceiving there would be 
the aid of his victorious father, sue- much hard fighting required to estab- 
ceeded in seizing the earldom, to the lish his rights, voluntarily sold them 
manifest wrong of the sons of the to Helie for a thousand crowns, and 
marchioness of Liguria and the left Maine for ever. Helie, the 
countess de la Fleche. On the death darling of the people, was unani- 
of William the Conqueror, young mously called to the earldom. 

f Ordericus Vitalis. 



64 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

heritance from my ancestors," said Helie ; " and by God's 
help I will bequeath it to my children as freely as I 
now possess it. If you choose to challenge my right, 
I am ready to submit my claims to the judgment of a 
legal assembly of kings, princes, and prelates, and to 
abide by their decision."* 

" My pleadings with you shall be with swords, spears, 
and showers of arrows," was the fierce rejoinder. 

" It was my desire to fight against the pagans, in the 
Lord's name," said Helie undauntedly, " but it appears 
I must have a conflict nearer home with the foes of 
Christ, for every one who resists the right, and commits 
injustice, proves himself to be the enemy of the God of 
truth and justice, who is truth itself, and the Sun of 
Kighteousness. He has been pleased to invest me with 
the government of Maine, and I ought not lightly to 
resign it, lest the people whom he has committed to my 
charge, become the prey of robbers, like sheep abandoned 
of their shepherd." Then addressing himself to the 
peers of England and Normandy, by whom his potent 
adversary was surrounded, he thus continued: " Listen 
then, ye lords here present, while I declare the reso- 
lution with which Heaven inspires me. I will not 
relinquish the cross I have accepted, though, for the 
present, I am prevented from fulfilling the vow I 
have made, to join the pilgrim princes who are about 
to fight for it in the Holy Land; I will place 
this holy symbol on my helmet, my shield, my 
saddle, and my bridle. Under the protection of this 
cognizance, I will encounter the enemies of peace 
and justice, in the defence of the christian country 
of Maine, and those who fight with me will combat a 
soldier of Christ." 

" Go where you will, and do what you like," retorted 
Eufus, "lam not willing to make war on those who have 
taken the cross ; but I will not give up a city which my 

* Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 65 

father held to the day of his death. Lose no time, there- 
fore, in repairing your fortifications ; summon all the 
masons and stone cutters you can raise money to hire, in 
order to build up the old breaches in your wall ; for I 
will not leave you in possession of my inheritance. It is 
my intention to visit the citizens of Mans, at the head of a 
hundred thousand lances ; I shall cause waggons, drawn 
by oxen, loaded with arrows, bolts, and other weapons 
of war, to proceed thither with the utmost speed ; yet I 
and my men at arms will arrive at your gates before 
them, and show you and all who are in league with 
you, that I speak sooth."* 

The vassal princes and great peers who witnessed this 
scene admired the frankness and intrepid demeanour i 
of Helie, but were in too much fear of his powerful 
antagonist to manifest the sympathy they felt. Bufus 
however, permitted his chivalric foe to depart ; and 
instead of fulfilling his threat of attacking Maine, turned 
his whole force against the king of France, of whom he 
demanded the surrender of the Vexin, as part of 
the ancient appanage of Normandy.f Military adven- 
turers, from every part of Europe, resorted to him, 
attracted by the large pay and liberal patronage he 
accorded to those who followed his banner and distin- 
guished themselves by daring deeds. " At the head of such 
troops," observes the contemporary chronicler, Ordericus 
Yitalis, "if Julius Csesar himself, with his Italian 
legions, had offered him any affront, William Bufus would 
not have hesitated to try the mettle of his troops against 
the boasted prowess of the Boman." The French, how- 
ever, greatly exceeded him in numbers, and being aided 
by the earls of Anjou and Bretagne, resisted his ambi- 
tious demands. William, in the course of this campaign, 
built the strong fortress of Gisors, which served as an 
arsenal, and head quarters, for his troops in that hostile 
country, where they got more hard knocks than plun- 

* Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. 



66 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

der, did much damage, and reaped very little profit. 
Many prisoners were made on both sides. Rufus 
promptly ransomed his followers, as soon as he learned 
they had fallen into the hands of the enemy, while the 
king of France left his captive knights and nobles 
to apply to their personal resources for the means of 
liberation. Many of them, in consequence of this neglect 
on the part of their sovereign, made their own terms 
with the victorious king of England, and purchased their 
freedom by transferring their allegiance to him, and 
entering his service. He penetrated as far as Pontoise, but 
lost a great many men and almost all his horses, in this 
campaign, so that many of his knights, who had crossed 
1 the frontier on gallant chargers, had to return on foot.* 
No sooner did Rufus arrive in England, in the autumn 
of 1097, than a fresh quarrel broke out between him 
and his primate, who was pertinacious in his demands 
of the restoration of certain portions of the tempo- 
ralities of his diocese, which nothing could prevail 
on the king to resign. At last, Anselm, weary of the 
contest, solicited permission to go to Rome to consult 
the pope on his spiritual affairs, for the good of his soul. 
The king angrily replied, " Swear on the gospels neither 
to visit Rome nor yet to address appeals to the Roman 
see on any pretence whatsoever, and you may then 
attend to your own business unmolested, and retain 
your position as the first noble in the . land ; but if 
you persist in your ill-advised resolution I will strip 
you of everything, and you shall never return to 
England again. Besides, I do not understand your 
motives for this foolish journey, for I cannot believe 
you can have been guilty of any crime which requires 
the pope's particular absolution; and as for consulting 
him on spiritual doubts or difficulties, I think you are 
every whit as well able to give the pope advice as he 
to instruct you." f 

* Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid, Eadmer. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 67 

Neither fair words, threats, persuasions, nor flattery, 
could prevail with Anselm to give up his purpose. 
Strange to say, the other prelates sided with the king, 
and the majority of the nobles with Anselm. 

Notwithstanding his dispute with "William Rufus, 
Anselm professed a great affection for him, and a desire 
to part in peace. He came to the court purposely to 
announce his intended departure to the continent, and 
to take a personal farewell of the offended monarch, whose 
pleasure he was wilfully opposing. " Sir," said he to 
the king, " I am now going, I wish it were with 
your permission, as it would have been more satisfactory 
both to ourselves and the people ; but though it is unfor- 
tunately otherwise, not knowing when we may meet 
again, if ever, I now come, as your spiritual father and 
archbishop, to offer you my good wishes; and — unless you 
reject it, my blessing." Eufus eagerly replied that he 
did not reject it. The archbishop rose and made the 
sign of the cross over the king's head, who, touched by 
the solemnity of his manner, humbly bowed himself 
to receive the pastoral benediction. Anselm bade him 
farewell, and instantly retired, leaving both the king 
and nobles deeply impressed with the intrepidity of 
his behaviour. Eufus even expressed his admiration 
openly of the firmness and equanimity displayed by 
the primate on this occasion.* Unfortunately, all his 
good impressions were of an evanescent nature, and he 
was easily induced, by persons who represented that 
Anselm was carrying great treasures out of the realm, 
to send orders to search his baggage at Dover. William 
de Warenwast, one of the courtiers, undertook this ungra- 
cious office, which he performed with peculiar brutality, 
for, finding neither money, plate, nor jewels, he followed 
the archbishop to the beach, and as Anselm was on the 
point of embarkation with his secretary and friend, Eadmer, 
the historian, laid hands upon him in the king's name, 

* Eadmer; Lingard 



68 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

and subjected him to the indignity of a personal search, 
turning both his pockets and sleeves of his robe inside 
out, to the great scandal of the people.* 

Anselm had his revenge ; he was accompanied by his 
friend, Eadmer, the chronicler, who has written a very 
eloquent historical biography of him, and a history of his 
own times, in which the Red King makes, of course, a 
remarkably sorry figure. And his • record has been 
copied by all the chroniclers and historians who have 
written the reign of William Rufus,from that time to this. 
The self- exiled archbishop did not content himself with 
referring his cause to the judgment of posterity. He 
addressed from Lyons a letter to Pope Urban, in which 
he thus states the causes of his rupture with the sove- 
reign of England : 

"The king would not restore to my church those lands pertaining 
to it, which he had given away after the death of my predecessor, 
and persisted in alienating more, notwithstanding my opposition. He 
required of me grievous services, such as had not been required of 
my predecessors. He annulled the law of Grod and the apostolical 
and canonical decisions, by customs of his own creation. I could 
not acquiesce in such conduct, without the loss of my own soul. To 
plead against him in his own court was impossible, for no one dared 
to assist or advise me. My object in coming to you is to beg you to free 
me from the bondage of the episcopal dignity, and to beseech you to 
allow me to serve Grod again in the tranquillity of my cell, and that 
you would provide for the English churches,- according to your 
wisdom and the authority of your position. "f 

The pope invited Anselm to Rome, received him with 
unwonted honours, lodged him and his two faithful 
companions, Eadmer and Baldwin, in his own palace, 
commanded all the English who came to Eome to kiss 
his toe, and promised to support him with all his power 
in his disputes with the king of England. Urban 
also wrote to William, enjoining him to restore all he had 
taken from the archbishop, and to recall him to his 
see. 

* Eadmer ; Hoveden ; Wendover. f Eadmer. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 69 

It was with great difficulty that William could be 
induced to receive and read the letter, and when he 
learned that it was brought by a servant of Anselm, 
he swore, by his favourite oath, " the crucifix at Lucca, 
that if he did not depart from England immediately, he 
would have his eyes torn out/' At this formidable threat 
the terrified messenger fled without waiting for an answer. 
William, however, did not fail to send one, which deserves 
quotation, as a rich specimen of the laconic and uncere- 
monious character of the epistolary style -royal adopted 
by our Bachelor King, to the acknowledged head of his 
church. 

Letter of William Rufus to Pope "Cuban II. 

11 1 am much, surprised how it came into your head to inter- 
cede for the restoration of Anselm. Before he left my kingdom 
I warned him I would seize all the revenues of his see as soon as 
he departed. I have done what I threatened, and what I had a 
right to do, and you are in the wrong to blame me."* 

Urban would have excommunicated the haughty Anglo- 
Norman sovereign, had it not been that, checked by an 
anti-pope, he was not in a position to provoke the 
enmity of so powerful a prince. 

Anselm took up his abode at Lyons, where he and 
his reverend friends avenged themselves with dreaming 
evil dreams, predicting a violent death, and a doom of 
everlasting perdition to his royal foe.f Rufus, meantime, 
rejoicing in the self-inflicted exile of his uncompromising 
primate, continued to enjoy the rich temporalities of the 

* Eadmer. 

f He was recalled to England on advanced age, and on the credit of 
the death of Rufus, but agreed even several alleged miracles, was canon- 
worse with the new king, Henry I., ized, nearly four centuries after his 
whom he was about to excommu- death, at the intercession of the 
nicate for his aggressions on church Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, 
property, but was mollified by the Morton, in the reign of Henry VII. 
mediation of Adela, countess of Blois, He originated that mischievous 
sister to that monarch, and Henry's statute prohibiting the marriage of 
submission. He died at a very priests in England. 



70 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

archiepiscopal see of Canterbury unchecked by his 
complaints and admonitions. 

William of Malmesbury, who is undoubtedly one of the 
most luminous writers of the period, gives the following 
solution for the Red King's insatiable rapacity : 

" In the beginning of his reign, when, in consequence 
of the alarming insurrection that ensued, he assembled 
soldiers, he denied them nothing, and promised to increase 
their pay hereafter, so that when he had exhausted his 
royal father's treasures, he knew not how to retrench his 
expenses, for the spirit of giving, which had, by habit, 
become second nature, remained, though the* power of 
gratifying it having failed, he resorted to unlawful means 
of increasing his revenues, by appropriating those of the 
church."* The suggestions of his unprincipled minister 
Ealph Flambard, led him into many evil practices and 
unpopular courses. Eufus used facetiously to observe of 
him " that he was the only man he ever knew, who was 
willing to incur universal hatred for the sake of pleasing 
his king." The hatred, however, which this man's pro- 
ceedings had provoked was not of a nature to excite 
mirth. A desperate attempt was at last made for his 
destruction, soon after his elevation to the office of 
lord chancellor, which he had held in addition to his 
anomalous offices of treasurer and chaplain to the king. 
One day he was walking in his garden with his 
secretary, and one or two other attendants, on the 
banks of the Thames, when Gerald, a person who had 
once been in his service, but was now acting agent 
of the confederacy, came in a boat with some other 
persons in the livery of the bishop of London, whose 
secretary Ealph had formerly been, and told him "that the 
right reverend prelate, their lord, who was then lying 
sick at his palace by the river side, earnestly desired to 
see and speak to him, and being now almost at the last 
gasp, prayed him to lose no time, but return with them 

* William of Malmesbury. 



WILLIAM RTJFUS. 71 

iu the boat he had seut for him." Ralph, suspecting 
no danger, stepped into the boat, with one or two of 
his attendants only; but Gerald and his accomplices 
instead of landing him at the bishop's palace, pushed 
stoutly down the river. . Ralph called out lustily to 
know whither they were carrying him, seeing they 
were long past the landing place, but receiving only 
a deceptive answer, perceived, to his great dismay, 
that they were approaching a vessel, that was lying 
at anchor in the midst of the stream. In spite of all 
his anger, remonstrances, and resistance, they forced 
him on board the suspected ship, a light sailing barque, 
which was full of armed men, and immediately put out 
to sea with favouring wind and tide. Giving himself 
up for lost, he cast his signet ring into the deep 
waters, and bade his secretary do the same with the 
great seal, lest any improper use should be made of 
either by his foes.* Gerald, not wishing to shed inno- 
cent blood, set the secretary and Ralph's other attendants 
on shore, having first bound them by a solemn oath 
not to disclose the abduction of their master. This 
done, the vessel got fairly out to sea, crowded her sails, 
and took a southward course. Ralph Flambard, who 
was seated pensively in the forepart of the ship, had next 
the pleasant amusement of listening to a debate among 
the seamen, touching the manner in which he was to be 
put to death, whether by flinging him alive into the sea 
or dashing his brains out first. Before they had settled 
that point, a furious contention arose about the division 
of his garments, all coveting his cloak, which was 
larger and of richer material than the rest of his clothes. 
Meantime, a violent gale sprung up from the south, and 
began to toss the barque. The heavens grew black with 
clouds, and so terrific a tempest arose that the mast was 
shivered, the cable broken, the waves swept the deck, 
and every one expected to perish. This proved a favour- 

* Sim Dunelm. 



72 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

able crisis for Ralph Flambard, for the person next in 
authority to Gerald expressed aloud his repentance of 
the murderous scheme in which he had engaged, prayed 
his forgiveness, and offered to assist him to defend himself. 
Then Flambard, who had not lost his presence of mind, 
boldly turning to Gerald, said, " Gerald, thou wert my 
man, and still owest faith to me ; what art thou thinking 
of? Call back thy mind from this wicked design, and 
tell me what thou dost require of me, for I am he that 
can give more than thou canst demand." Gerald, not so 
much allured by these promises as conscience-stricken and 
intimidated by the storm, and also accustomed to the 
authority of the man, consented to preserve his life, and 
the ship being soon after driven on the shore, assisted him 
to land. The enemies of Flambard, in the meanwhile, 
rejoicing in the success of their treacherous enter- 
prise for his destruction, flattered themselves they were 
now entirely quit of him ; but on the third day, to their 
infinite consternation, he made his appearance at court 
in his accustomed place, and related the tale of the 
treacherous attempt to spirit him away, to the king, 
together with the particulars of his marvellous escape 
from the malice of his enemies, "which had been pro- 
voked," he said, "by his zeal for the service of his royal 
master."* Rufus declared "that he would make him a 
good compensation for all he had suffered for his devo- 
tion to his interests," and appointed him to the vacant 
bishopric of Durham. He was, however, compelled to 
pay a thousand pounds in return for his nomination 
to that wealthy see. 

A thousand pounds appears to have been the usual sum 
demanded by William Rufus as the price of a bishopric. 
Such had been the price paid to him by another of his 
corrupt favourites, Herbert, abbot of Ramsay, surnamed 
Losing, or Losinga, the Flatterer, for the bishopric of 
Thetford, then the metropolitan see of the East Angles.f 

* Sim Dimelm ; Knyghton ; Lingard ; Stow. f Sim Dunelm. 



WILLIAM EtXTFUS. 73 

A very remarkable incident, illustrative of the manners 
and customs of the era of our first Bachelor King, 
occurred, in connexion with this appointment. On the 
death of Herford, bishop of Thetford, an ecclesiastic of 
great learning and piety, named William, had been 
elected as his successor ; but when the dean and chap- 
ter proceeded to inquire into his future prospects, by 
the divination of opening the Bible — a heathenish super- 
stition then usually practised on such occasions — they 
lighted on the last verse of the 18th of St. John, "Not 
this man, but Barabbas: now Barabbas was a robber/' 
This evil augury appeared to be awfully fulfilled by the 
sudden death of the hopeful designate, William, before 
his enthronization, and the nomination of the king's 
profligate Italian favourite, Herbert Losinga, to the 
bishopric ; for Herbert had amassed a large fortune by 
the traffic in livings and other simoniacal practices, so 
that his name was considered a word of infamy and a 
reproach to the church. " Was this a man," the East 
Anglians indignantly asked, "to fill the chair of holy 
St. Felix ? " * Never, since the aggressions of the pagan 
Mercians and the persecuting Danes, together with the 
incursions of the devouring waves, had compelled the 
East Anglian converts to translate their metropolitan see 
from the ruins of their once stately city of Dunwich to 
Elmham, and finally to Thetford, had such a calamity 
befallen them as the imposition of so evil a man as 
Herbert Losinga for their diocesan. The dean and 
chapter sat disconsolate and sore dismayed, when, sup- 
ported by a band of Norman men-at-arms, he presented 
himself before them as the king's designate, and required 
them to proceed to his enthronization. They protested, but 
in vain, against the illegality of a nomination, obtained, 
not through the suffrages of the church, but purchased 

* The Burgundian missionary who founded the christian church among 
first planted the cross on the heather a barbarous race, and fixed the episco- 
coast of Suffolk, preached the gospel, pal see of the East Angles at Dunwich. 



74 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

of a reprobate sovereign for money. Then they informed 
him of the awful divination by the Bible, which had 
foreshown the death of his short-lived predecessor, and 
his own unhallowed intrusion, under the appropriate 
figure of Barabbas. Herbert, perhaps suspecting a pious 
fraud, insisted on trying the divination for himself, before 
the whole assembly. The passage at which he opened was 
Matthew xxvi, verse 50, being the reproachful query of 
our blessed Lord to Judas, " Friend, wherefore art thou 
come?" The intrusive designate trembled. His own con- 
science, witnessing with the solemn words of Scripture, 
convicted him of having been, like Barabbas, a robber ; 
but his robbery had been of a darker dye : it had been 
sacrilege, and now he was asked, as the traitor Judas had 
been of yore, by his gracious Saviour, him whom he was 
about to betray for money, " Friend, wherefore art thou 
come ? " Was he not intruding himself into a bishop's 
office uncalled by the Holy Spirit, having been serving 
mammon instead of God, and stained with the wages of 
unrighteousness ? Should he harden his heart, like Judas, 
after the double warning he had received ? Not so ; there 
was place for repentance, and forgiveness on amendment 
of life. Herbert Losinga went to Rome, confessed to the 
pope the illegality of his proceedings, and resigned the 
episcopal ring and crozier he had purchased of his profli- 
gate sovereign. The pope absolved him, and returned the 
symbols of his investiture, solemnly confirming him as 
the bishop of Thetford, and giving him leave to translate 
the' see, from that decayed and impoverished town, to the 
populous and thriving city of Norwich. Losinga returned 
inspired with holy resolutions, a regenerate man; he 
expended his ill-gotten wealth in the erection of the fair 
cathedral of Norwich, and in works of charity, and became 
one of the most eminent church reformers, as well as one 
of the most graceful ecclesiastical architects of his period.* 

* He was the first bishop of still be seen in the chancel of the 
Norwich. His tomb, with his recum- nobler monument he erected for 
bent effigy, lacking a nose, may himself. 



WILLIAM RUMS. 75 

The Red King was one day enjoying the pleasures of 
the chase in the New Forest, with a numerous retinue of 
his nobles, when he encountered Amalgise, the trusty 
courier of Robert de Belesme, his deputy in Normandy, 
who had just arrived from over seas, and was posting in 
hot haste to his royal hunting lodge at Clarendon, in 
quest of him. 

" What news of Mans ?" shouted Rufus, while yet afar 
off. " How goes the siege ? " 

" Sire," replied the messenger, " Mans has been sur- 
prised. Helie and his quens have entered it ; but 
the citadel still holds out, defended by your valiant 
Normans. They implore your succour/' 

" They shall have it," exclaimed the king. "We will 
come to their aid ; and by St. Luke's face, those who 
have entered the town shall find their conquest dearly 
purchased. Return with all speed to my loyal friends, 
tell them I will come to their aid, in person, and 
trust, within eight days, to enter Mans myself." Then 
turning to the nobles who surrounded him, he said, 
"Come, let us cross over to Normandy without delay, 
to support our brave friends there."* 

His great state officers and the lords of his council 
represented that such an expedition as he proposed 
required many preliminary arrangements, and inquired 
"how he imagined an army was to be levied at such brief 
notice ?" " I think," replied Rufus, " if I know anything 
of the temper of my young English subjects, I shall have 
no lack of brave soldiers to partake my fortunes." Then 
wheeling his fiery steed about, and rousing his mettle 
with whip and spur, the impetuous monarch looked round 
on his astonished company, exclaiming, " Let all who love 
me follow me." Dashing off at headlong speed to the 
coast, he reached Southampton in a storm of wind and 
rain, and, without tarrying to hold council, or perform 

* Wace gives a most spirited version of this stirring episode in the Life of 
the Red King. — See Roman de Rou. 



76 WILLIAM RUFTJS. 

any of the ceremonies required by royal etiquette, previous 
to leaving the realm, he flung himself on board the only 
ship in the harbour, a sorry trading vessel, scarcely sea- 
worthy, and ordered the master to hoist his sails forthwith 
and steer for the coast of Normandy. The master and 
his experienced mariners stood aghast at the royal com- 
mand, prayed him to take patience, and wait for more 
favourable weather, and not expose himself to the perils 
of the voyage, with such tempestuous gales on that rough 
sea.* 

" Tush/' replied Rufus, " didst thou ever hear of 
a king being drowned? Weigh anchor, without a 
moment's delay, and crowd all thy sails for Normandy. 
I know that all things, even wjnds and waves, are 
accustomed to obey nie."f 

One of the chroniclers, who reports this trait of 
Rufus's characteristic presumption, quaintly observes, 
" that the master of the vessel, to whom he addressed 
his scornful question, ' Didst ever hear of a king being 
drowned ? ' might, had he not lacked the courage, have 
replied, 'Yea, King Pharaoh!'" But the reckless Nor- 
man's hour had not yet come ; a favouring gale sprang 
up, and he performed his venturous voyage, so speedily, 
that he reached the port of Tonque early on the follow- 
ing morning. Several persons, of various degrees, were 
loitering about the harbour, and seeing the little vessel 
coming in, under such press of sail, from England, were 
eager to learn if she brought any tidings. Their first 
inquiries were about the king. Rufus laughed heartily, as 
he gave replies they little expected to their questions, and 
enjoyed their surprise when he told them " he was there 
in person, to give a true account of himself." J 

He was welcomed with acclamations, for his frank 
facetious manners and fearless courage rendered him 
a general favourite. His whimsical disregard of the 

* Wace ; Roger of Wendover ; Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. 

X W. Gemeticensis ; William of Malmesbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 77 

pompous ceremonials that surrounded regality also 
amused and pleased the people. Instead of waiting for. 
a stately white charger, meet for a sovereign's use, 
trapped with crimson velvet, and emblazoned with his royal 
achievements, to be brought for him, he gaily mounted 
a humble mare, belonging to a priest, who happened to 
be among the spectators -of his arrival, and attended by 
all the population of the place, proceeded to Bonneville- 
sur-Tonque, amidst their acclamations. Bonneville-sur- 
Tonque, was one of the palatial residences of the dukes 
of Normandy, situated about a quarter of a league 
from the port, and there he rested, while he issued his 
summonses to his trusty quens to rally round him. 
He soon found himself at the head of a powerful army, 
and proceeded by hasty marches to attack his opponent. 
The unexpected news of his arrival filled the hostile 
party with consternation. Count Helie evacuated Mans, 
which he had no means of defending against so formi- 
dable a foe, at the head of an hourly increasing 
puissance ; but before he withdrew his troops he set fire 
to the city, to prevent the Normans from taking posses- 
sion of it.* 

Eufus arrived under the walls of the castle of Maiet 
on a Friday, and summoned the garrison to surrender. On 
their refusal, he encamped for the night, and gave orders 
for storming it next day ; but in compliance with the 
advice of his counsellors, who besought him, " for the 
glory of God, to shew proper respect to the days of our 
Lord's burial and resurrection," he granted a truce to the 
enemy till the Monday. The assault was made on the 
Monday, when the besieged threw down vessels of hot 
coals, and firebrands, on the assailants, and thus ignited 
and presently burned to ashes, the heaps of wood and 
bushes, with which Eufus had caused the ditch to be filled 
up, in preparation for scaling the walls. 

While the king was raging at finding all his efforts, 
* Ordericus Vitalis. 



78 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

to reduce Maiet frustrated, by the skill and courage of 
the besieged, one of the garrison hurled a large stone at. 
him, from the top of a turret, which, though it did not 
strike him, crushed the head of a soldier who was standing 
near him, so that he was bespattered with his brains. 
Peals of insulting laughter burst from the garrison 
at this sight, and they united in the savage cry, 
" Fresh meat for the king of England ! take it to the 
fire to be cooked for his supper ! "* Rufus was so 
much disconcerted at this incident, that he called a 
council of his principal nobles, to consider what course it 
would be best to adopt ; and they having demonstrated 
the folly of continuing to assail, without shelter for 
themselves, a place strongly fortified, and defended 
by so resolute a garrison, he agreed to retire at break 
of day toward Luce le Grand. He and his troops took 
the disgraceful vengeance of rooting up the vines and 
fruit-trees, and devastating, with fire and sword, the rich 
country through which they retreated to Mans. 

At last Helie de la Fleche, the gallant antagonist 
who had caused Rufus so much trouble, having 
incautiously entered a wood, on some adventurous 
expedition, attended only by seven horsemen, fell into 
an ambush, and was captured by Robert de Belesme, by 
whom he was conducted to Rouen, and presented to 
the king. 

" Ha, ha ! " exclaimed Rufus, in a jocular tone, 
" I have you then at last, master ! " 

"Aye," replied Helie, undauntedly, "my evil stars 
have allowed me to be surprised and thrown into your 
power ; but an' I could escape, I would show you that 
I could do somewhat yet." 

" You would ?" exclaimed Rufus, grasping him by the 
arm. " Well, then, begone ! and do your worst. I give 
you leave to depart, and by the holy crucifix at Lucca, 
if you capture me, I will ask no return for the grace I 

* Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 70 

now accord to yon." He then presented Helie with a safe 
conduct, ordered him to be supplied with a horse, and 
allowed him to go, whithersoever he pleased, unmolested,* 
a trait of manly generosity, worthy of admiration in 
a military sovereign bearing a better name than William 
Rufus. 

When Rufus marched to the relief of his garrison, 
at Ballon, the people, who were besieged by his adversary, 
Fulk, count of Anjou, joyfully threw open their gates 
and admitted him. The garrison had a few days pre- 
vious made a sortie on Fulk, while he and his army were 
at dinner, surprised and taken a hundred and forty 
knights and barons, of the highest rank, whom they had 
lodged in the castle. Immediately the acclamations 
which announced the entrance of Rufus within the 
castle had subsided, these prisoners raised the supplica- 
tory cry : " Noble King William, give us our liberty." 
When the circumstances w^ere explained to him he 
generously ordered them all to be released from their 
fetters, and invited them to share a plentiful repast with, 
his own followers, in the court of the castle, telling 
them " after they had eaten they should be released on 
their parole of honour." f 

The Norman nobles, surprised at the magnanimity and 
courtesy of the king's proceedings, and perhaps afraid 
of losing the rich ransoms of their captives, raised 
objections, and reminded hfm that it would be difficult 
to prevent the prisoners from making their escape. 
" Far be it from me," replied Rufus, with a burst 
of generous feeling, "to suspect any valiant knight of 
being capable of violating his word. If such there 
be, he would become a branded outcast for the rest of 
his life." t 

The result was, the Red King won golden opinions 
from his former enemies, the citizens of Mans sub- 
mitted to his authority, and without more bloodshed the 

* Ordericus Vitalis. f Ibid. J Ibid. 



80 WILLIAM RTJFUS. 

royal standard of England was displayed on all the 
towers of that city.* 

The king returned to England at Easter, 1099, and on 
the Whitsun festival kept court, for the first time, in 
Westminster Hall, which was then finished for the meet- 
ing of the great council of nobles, appointed to be 
annually held there. Several of the prelates, aware of the 
misery that had been caused by raising the money 
which had been expended in erecting it, observed re- 
proachfully that " it was unreasonably large." "Tut," 
replied Rufus, scornfully, looking round, " this is but a 
bed-chamber in comparison to the palace I intend to 
build." The dimensions of "Westminster Hall were 270 
feet in length and 74 in breadth, but it was his intention 
to have extended it from the Thames to King Street. 

The king was recalled to Normandy that summer, by a 
fresh revolt in Maine, Helie having retaken several 
places of importance, but was again, for a time, put 
down by his powerful antagonist, who returned, after a 
short brilliant campaign, to England, where he kept his 
court with great splendour on Christmas Day at Win- 
chester, at Easter at Windsor, and at Whitsuntide in 
Westminster, to meet his peers in council, wearing his 
robes and royal circlet, and afterwards making them 
great banquets. f 

A new and brilliant prospect was unfolded to Eufus in 
the spring of 1100. William, count of Poictiers, being 
desirous of emulating the renown won by the crusaders 
in the Holy Land, determined to undertake an expedi- 
tion thither. An army of three hundred thousand 
volunteers, from Acquitaine, Grascony, and other provinces 
of the south, had enlisted under his banner, but he 
was wholly destitute of the necessary funds. In this 
predicament he dispatched envoys to the king of 
England, offering to imitate the example of Robert 
duke of Normandy, and pledge his dominions to him for 
* Ordericus Vitalis. f Aunalsof Waverley; Book of St. Albans. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 81 

a sum of money sufficient for his purpose. Rufus eagerly- 
closed with this proposal, which would enable him to 
extend his sway over the fair duchy of Acquitaine, even 
to the banks of the Garonne. He gave orders for fresh 
taxes to be raised to enable him to pay the sum for which 
the count had stipulated to put him in possession of the 
territories he so eagerly desired to possess.* 

In the month of July, while the king's fleet was fit- 
ting out with every circumstance of royal pomp for the 
expedition, which, according to his calculation, was to 
place him at the summit of earthly greatness, by adding 
Poictiers and Acquitaine to his now widely extended 
dominions, he proceeded to "Winchester to wile away the 
time in field sports, till his preparations should be com- 
plete. His brother Robert, who had covered himself with 
glory in the crusade, and might, if it had so pleased him, 
have worn the crown of Jerusalem, which his illustrious 
comrades considered the just meed of his valour, had now 
wedded, though late in life, the fair and noble lady 
Sibylla, daughter of Geoffrey, Marquis of Conversana, 
with whom he had received a marriage portion, large 
enough to redeem his inheritance, by paying off the sum 
for which he had mortgaged his dominions to Rufus, an 
arrangement by no means acceptable to the Red King, 
who desired to retain Normandy in his own hands. 

Many fearful signs and portents were at this time rife 
in England ; meteoric phenomena in the heavens, storms, 
inundations, and alleged supernatural appearances ; "but 
the most dreadful of all," says William of Malmesbury, 
" the devil appeared in a frightful shape to many Nor- 
mans, in the woods and secret places, and made awful 
communications to them respecting the king, Ralph 
Flambard, and others in his confidence."! 

It is easy to conjecture that these were either priestly 

* Ordericus Yitalis. 

f See also Hoyeden ; Florence of Worcester ; and others of the Norman 
Chroniclers. 



82 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

or political tricks, audaciously got up to bring the king 
and his unpopular minister into further disrepute, and 
also, if possible, to intimidate them and their partisans. 

A sovereign who was at open variance with the church 
was sure to be represented as in close alliance with the 
powers of darkness, and considered accountable for all the 
calamities that befel England in his reign. Several of these 
were, of a startling character: an earthquake, a terrific 
hurricane that blew down six hundred houses in London, 
and the roof off Bow church, a fire that consumed the 
greater part of the metropolis in the following year, 
a famine, a pestilence, the submersion of earl Godwin's 
lands and the great inundation of the Thames, with 
numerous other disastrous occurrences, besides the 
appearance of a blazing star with double beard, which 
seemed to occasion strange commotions among other 
stars, and sorely dismayed the hearts of men.* 

William of Malmesbury, after summing up the mar- 
vellous catalogue of the many sudden and sorrowful 
accidents that happened in the time of the Red Xing, 
says : " A fountain at Finchhampstead, in the county of 
Bucks, so plentifully flowed with blood, for fifteen whole 
days, that it wholly discoloured „a neighbouring pool. 
"When the king heard of it he laughed; neither did he 
care for his own dreams, nor for what others dreamed 
concerning him." An indubitable proof that he pos- 
sessed much stronger powers of reason than the 
prejudiced monastic writers, who turn to his reproach 
his absence from the superstitious follies of the dark 
ages. " This Will le Rous," says the chronicler of 
St. Albans, "was a proud and wonder contrarious man 
to God and holy church. At last he became so con- 
trarious that all things that pleased God displeased 
him, and all things that God loved he hated deadly." 

The day before his tragical death Rufus was in 
high spirits, and full of ambitious projects. On being 

* William of Malmesbury ; Saxon Chronicle ; Eoger of "Wendover. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 83 

asked by those about liim where he thought to spend 
his Christmas, he replied, with his usual presumption, 
" At Poictiers, for the earl intendeth to bouno him 
toward Jerusalem, and I will essay to get his earldom, 
for well I wot he will have to pawn it to raise the 
money to perform the journey."* 

That night the king had a dream, which, notwith- 
standing his habitual contempt for everything in the 
shape of omens and prognostics of coming ill, troubled 
him. It was, that having been let blood by a surgeon, 
the stream which burst forth reached to the heavens, 
clouded the light, and darkened the day. He awoke in 
mortal terror, and calling on the Blessed Virgin and 
lately despised saints for protection, commanded a 
light to be brought, and forbade his attendants to 
leave him, telling them " that he had a great dread, 
supposing that his vision portended some great mis- 
chance impending over him."f They watched beside 
him till daylight, when, just as it began to dawn, Eobert 
Fitz-Hamon, one of his greatest nobles, craved an 
audience, in great perturbation. His errand was to 
recount a frightful dream concerning the king, which 
a foreign monk had come from far to communicate, and 
entreat him "to make it known to his royal master 
without delay, as he feared it betided ill to him." It 
was, "that he saw his majesty enter a certain church 
with a haughty step and menacing gestures, looking 
contemptuously on the congregation, as he strode up the 
aisle ; then rudely seizing the crucifix, he began to gnaw 
its arms with his teeth and tear its legs in very impious 
and sacrilegious fashion ; but at length the insulted image 
raised its foot, and gave the king so vengeful a kick in 
the face, that he fell backwards to the ground, and as he 
lay prostrate, a volume of flame issued from his mouth, 
mingled with smoke, that touched the very stars." J 

* Fabyan's Chronicle, f William of Malmesbury ; Book of St. Albans. 
X Robert of Gloucester ; William of Malmesbury ; Book of St. Albans. 



84 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

Instead of being dismayed at this appalling recital, 
"William laughed heartily, appeared highly tickled, and 
exclaimed, " He is a monk, and dreams for money, as 
monks will. Give him a hundred shillings, lest he should 
say he has dreamed bootless ; but bid him dream better 
dreams of me for the time to come."* 

Next came a visit from the abbot of "Winchester, 
whom the king had summoned in his first alarm 
about his dream. The holy man assured him "it 
was a warning of God's displeasure," and earnestly 
exhorted him " to pacify the Divine wrath by prayer, 
penance, and amendment of life, to fast, give alms to the 
poor, and refrain from hunting and profane sports on a 
Friday, for the rest of his life." This making the king 
somewhat pensive, he determined not to hunt that day, at 
least, for it was the fast of St. Peter, ad vinculo,. He kept 
his resolution till after dinner, a meal which he partook 
at the usual early hour in the forenoon, with some of his 
familiar companions. Among these, sir Walter Tirel, 
lord of Poix and Pontoise, who had just arrived from 
France to pay his court to him, was a most special 
favourite, being a brave soldier, a keen sportsman, and 
a boon companion. After eating, drinking, and joking 
with him, the excitable spirits of the king returned, 
and he swore " that no man should let or hinder him of 
his disport, for, come what would, he would hunt the 
hart that day in his New Forest," for so he called the 
extensive chase added by the late king, his father, to the 
forest of Ytene, which derives its name from the river 
Itchin, and was an ancient royal hunting ground in the 
days of the Saxon monarchs. William the Conqueror 
expelled a number of settlers who had established them- 
selves there, and they made no less complaint of their 
expulsion than if they had been the lawful owners of the 
land. More than thirty villages were, .however, destroyed 
by that prince, to form his great deer park ; and both he 
* "William of Malmesbury ; Matthew of Westminster. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 85 

and his son Rufus enforced the game laws with great 
severity, though it would be a great historical blunder to 
repeat the vulgar error that those laws originated with 
the Norman conquest, since they were bitterly com- 
plained of during the Danish reigns of terror, and were 
probably among the tyrannical impositions of the 
Romans. The revival of these statutes was greatly 
complained of by the English, and with reason, for 
heavy fines were inflicted on gentlemen who presumed 
to slay either deer or wild boars ; loss of hands, or 
eyes, or ears ; forfeiture of liberty on free persons of 
humbler degree, and forfeiture of life on slaves who 
were guilty of this trespass. It was sarcastically said 
of William the Conqueror, that he loved the tall deer 
as if he were their father, and William Rufus was nick- 
named the " Wild-beast-herd " and the "Forest Keeper."* 

While his attendants were lacing on the king's boots, 
and he was laughing and joking with his nobles, an 
armourer craved permission to present him with six new 
arrows. The king received them with great satisfaction, 
praised the work and the temper of the steel, kept four 
for his own use, and gave two to Tirel, with these com- 
plimentary words, "The sharpest arrows for the best 
marksman." 

At the moment of departure, Rufus was delayed by 
the approach of a monk of St. Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, 
who presented him with a letter from the venerable 
abbot, Serlo, which he earnestly entreated him to read, 
as it deeply concerned him. Rufus, who was now 
impatient to be off to the forest in pursuit of his 
sylvan sport, would fain have excused himself, but the 
urgency of the messenger prevailing over his reluct- 
ance, he opened the abbot's letter and read : " A certain 
monk of good repute and holy life in St. Peter's Abbey, 
at Gloucester, has dreamed that he saw the Lord Jesus 
seated on a lofty throne, and the glorious host of heaven, 
* Saxon Chronicle. 



86 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

with the blessed company of saints standing round, when 
a virgin, resplendent in light, but bathed in tears and 
full of sorrow, representing the afflicted church of 
this land, cast herself at" his feet, exclaiming, ' Oh, Lord 
Jesus Christ, Saviour of mankind, look with an eye of 
compassion on thy people, now groaning under the 
yoke of William, and take vengeance upon him for his 
wickedness.' And the Lord replied, 'Be patient, for the 
time is at hand ! ' "* 

Having read the letter, which concluded with an 
earnest exhortation from the abbot, for him "to give heed 
to this solemn warning, and forsake the evil courses into 
which he had fallen/' Rufus burst into an immoderate 
fit of laughter, and exclaimed, "I wonder what has 
induced my lord Serlo to write to me in this strain, 
for I really believe he is a worthy abbot, and a good old 
man. Lo, now, he considers it necessary to communicate 
this folly to me, who have something besides to attend to 
than the dreams of his snoring monks, and he even takes 
the trouble of committing them to writing, and sending all 
this distance. Does he think I am become like the English, 
who will defer a journey, or fear to undertake their 
business, because some dozing old woman happens to 
dream or sneeze ? Come, Walter de Poix, to horse ! " f 

Attended by his brother Henry and a jocund company 
of nobles, eager for the sport, the Red King galloped off 
to his favourite hunting ground, laughing at the dreams 
and prognostics which had ushered in the morning of that 
bright summer day. It was the 2nd of August, rather 
warm weather for the chase, but the season for hunting 
or shooting the buck was from Easter to Michaelmas, being 
what is termed the time of grace, or fatness. The 
king and his favoured companion, sir Walter Tirel, and a 
few attendants, proceeded to Choringham, in the forest of 
Ytene, where they took their station apart from the others, 
who were hunting in a separate glade. It was the custom, 
* Ordericus Vitalis ; Knyghton. f Ordericus Vitalis. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 87 

on sucli occasions, for some of the huntsmen and servants, 
with their dogs, to sweep the deer from all directions 
towards the royal station, in order to drive them before 
the king and his party, that he might, with the greater 
convenience, take deliberate aim as they passed. Rufus 
and Tirel now stood, with their bows ' in their hands, 
eagerly watching for the first appearance of the game. 
They waited for some time in vain. At last, just as the 
sun began to decline, a noble stag rushed past. The 
king shot, but only wounding it slightly, it fled with the 
arrow in its side. Anxious to see in which direction it 
went, the king held up his hand to shade his eyes from 
the slanting rays of the sun, as he looked after the 
wounded animal, and being greatly excited, shouted 
impatiently to his companion, " Shoot, Walter de Poix ! 
Shoot as if it were at the devil!"* 

Tirel, who had marked another stag approaching 
within proper distance for a shot, launched his shaft, and 
unwittingly lodged it in the broad bosom of his royal 
friend. Rufus made an impulsive effort to draw the 
arrow out, but in the attempt broke it off close to the 
barb, and, falling on his face, expired without uttering 
a single word. 

One of the numerous chroniclers who has recorded 
this event, states that the king had suddenly moved from 
his original station, and thus unluckily placed himself 
between Tirel and his quarry at the moment he shot.f 
This appears extremely probable, for we find he had the 
sun full in his face, and would naturally move to avoid 
it, without perceiving the danger he was incurring from 
intercepting the aim his fellow-sportsman was taking 
at the second stag, of whose appearance and vicinity he 
was evidently unaware, his whole attention being fixed 
on the one he had himself wounded. £ 

* Ordericus Yitalis ; Knyghton ; Thierry. f Ordericus Yitalis. 

J William of Malmesbury ; II. Knyghton ; Roger of Wendover ; Roger 
Hoveden ; Henry of Huntingdon ; Florence of Worcester. 



OO WILLIAM RUFUS. 

The circumstances have been thus quaintly, but not 
unpoetically versified by old Robert of Gloucester, in his 
rhyming chronicle: 

" But after meat, when he had eaten and y drunken well, 
He called one of his privy mates, cleped Walter Tyrrel, 
And a few oders of his men, and would ne long abide, 
But he wolde to his game, i tide what wolde betide ; ' 
For he was something fain, as his head was best, 
To wend him forth a hunting in the New Forest, 
So that he soon found a harte, he shot it himself anon, 
And the harte, forthe with the arrow, fast away was gone. 
He pricked forth fast enow, towards the west right ; 
His hand he held before his eyen, because of the sunlight ; 
So that Walter Tyrrel there beside was nigh, 
Wolde shoot another harte, that as he said he sey (saw or did see J, 
He shot the king in the breast, that never more he spake, 
But the shaft that was within him, griesly in him break ; 
For on his face he fell, and died without speche, 
Without shrift or housel, and there was Grod's wretch." 

Shakespeare seems to have had this last powerful line 
in his mind, when making the ghost in Hamlet describe 
the horror of his condition in consequence of having been 
suddenly sent to his great account, with all his sins upon 
his head, " unhouseled, unanealed;" in other words, with- 
out the sacramental rites then deemed necessary to 
mitigate the penal fires incurred by a life of sin, and 
unrepentant death. The historians of William Eufus 
being churchmen, almost unanimously consign him to 
a lot of everlasting misery, which more than one of the 
learned fraternity assures us was pronounced upon him 
before his departure from this life. 

Anselm, the exiled archbishop of Canterbury, who 
happened to be at Marcennial, on the 1st of August, on 
a visit to Odo, abbot of Cluny, was told by that eccle- 
siastic that " he had dreamed the preceding night he 
saw William, king of England, summoned before the 
tribunal of Grod, and sentenced to everlasting perdition, 
for his misdeeds." The following day Anselm returned 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 89 

to Lyons, and the same night, after the last service had 
been ehaunted, a, young man, simply dressed, and of a 
mild countenance, stood by the bedside of one of his 
clerks, and calling him by name, said, " Adam, are you 
asleep ? " " No," replied the clerk. " Do you wish to hear 
some news?" inquired the other. "By all means," 
replied Adam, who was probably very dull. " Then," 
said the stranger, " be assured that the quarrel between 
the archbishop and King William is now terminated." 
At this the clerk looked up in surprise, but saw no one. 
The next night another of the monks was standing in 
his usual place, chaunting the service, when some one 
held out to him a small slip of paper, on which he read 
the words, " King William is dead." He immediately 
looked round, but saw no one.* 

It was also pretended, "that Anselm in a dream 
beheld all the English saints addressing their complaints 
to the Most High against the tyranny of King William, 
who was destroying his churches, and that the answer 
was, * Let Alban, the proto-martyr of England, come 
hither/ At the same time, an arrow, that was on fire, 
was given to Alban, with these words, ' Behold the death 
of the man, of whom you complain.' Then the blessed 
Alban, receiving the arrow, said, ' I will give it to a 
wicked spirit, an avenger of sins/ and with these words 
threw it down towards the earth, and it flew blazing 
through the air, with a long flaming train like a comet ; 
and the archbishop Anselm perceived in the spirit that 
the king was then shot by an arrow and slain. Under this 
impression, which he declared to those about him, he rose 
at the dawn of day, and after celebrating mass, ordered 
his books, vestments, and other moveables, to be packed 
up, and commenced his journey towards England."f 

These stories, though solemnly recorded by contem- 
porary chroniclers, were of course invented after the 

* Eoger of Wendover ; 'William of Malmesbary. 
f Matthew of Westminster. 



90 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

occurrence of a tragedy that was calculated to make a 
powerful impression on the minds of cloistered dreamers ; 
but it is certain that, the day before William's death, 
Fulcherd, an eloquent and popular preacher, addressed 
a sermon to a crowded congregation, in St. Peter's 
Abbey church, at Gloucester, on the word " Salvation," 
in which, after denouncing the crying sins of the 
present generation in England, "from the crown of 
the head to the sole of the foot," he, as if moved with 
a prophetic spirit, wound up his discourse with these 
words : " A sudden change of affairs is threatened. The 
libertine shall not always bear rule. The Lord God 
will enter into judgment with the open enemies of his 
spouse. The bow of Divine vengeance is bent on the 
reprobate, and the swift arrow is taken from the quiver 
ready to wound. The blow will soon be struck."* 

In consequence of these coincidences, some have 
inclined to the supposition that the death of the Red 
King was not the result of accident, but an assassi- 
nation, plotted by his brother Henry, who was of 
the memorable hunting party, where he was cut off, 
and who was saluted as king, by a weird woman, 
whom he encountered in the forest about the same 
time the fatal accident occurred. But a similar fate 
had, a few months before, befallen their nephew, Richard, 
son to Robert, duke of Normandy, nearly on the 
same spot, whom there could be no sinister motive for 
destroying, seeing his birth was illegitimate. Yet the 
knight by whose erring shaft he fell was so alarmed that 
he fled to a monastery, and instantly took the cowl, to 
secure himself from the risk of punishment for his 
unskilful archery. 

Tirel, on finding, to his consternation, that the king 
was dead, leaped on his horse, rode in fiery haste 
to the nearest port, and took shipping for France ; but 

* Ordericus Vitalis. Fulcherd, who was a Norman monk, from the Monas- 
tery of LuZj was afterwards abbot of Shrewsbury. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 91 

as he was the wealthiest and most powerful baron on 
the Vexin, he did not consider it expedient to profess him- 
self a monk, though he afterwards made a pilgrimage 
to the Holy Land. Suger, and one or two modern 
historians, have stated " that Tirel not only denied that 
he was the cause of the king's death, but affirmed 
that he was at another part of the forest at the time," 
an assertion that might be dictated by prudential motives, 
lest he should be brought into trouble on that account, 
and robbed of his vast possessions, either by the king of 
France or duke of Normandy, to whom the assassination 
of the king of England might have formed a feasible 
pretext ; therefore, the alleged sayings of the unlucky 
archer, in denial, cannot be allowed any weight in dis- 
proving an historical statement, which is supported by 
the testimony of all the Anglo-Norman chroniclers,* and 
is corroborated by local traditions of contemporary date. 
A stream near Christchurch bears the name of " Tirell's 
Ford/' from his crossing it in making his way to the 
coast, f 

The following charming illustration of the fate of 
the royal Nimrod of English history is from the pen 
of sir Walter Scott : — 

" Ytene's oaks, beneath, whose shade 
Their theme the merry minstrels made 
Of Ascapart and Bevis Bold, 
And that Red King who, while of old, 
Through Boldrewood the chase he led, 
By his loved archer's arrow bled. "J 

Pope less gracefully describes the wounded king's 
attempt to withdraw the arrow in this rugged couplet : 

" See Eufus tugging at the deadly dart, 
Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart." 

* Knyghton gives the most minute the heart." Gemeticensis, Annals of 
account of Eufus's death. Eadmer "Waverley, and Walsingham, also 
only says " he was shot through relate the facts. 

f Gough's Camden's Britannica, vol. 1, page 186. J Marmion. 



92 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 



The spot on which Rufus fell was the site of an 
ancient church, which had been sacrilegiously demolished 
by his royal father, and the ruins were stained with his 
heart's blood.* 

Great confusion took place among the assistants at 
the royal hunt, when the astounding fact of the tragic 
death, of the king transpired. The forest resounded 
with cries, not of grief, but excitement, to proclaim what 
had occurred, and to call the scattered nobles together. 
Then every one went his own way, intent only on pro- 
viding for his own interest, while the lifeless remains 
of the king lay disregarded on the bare earth, f At 
length, some of the menial servants, enveloping them in 
a mean covering, placed them on the rough black cart 
of Purkiss, the charcoal burner, $ the only conveyance 
that was at hand, " which cart," says the chronicler, 
"was drawn by one sely lean beast, through a very foul 
and filthy way, where, in consequence of the roughness 
of the road, it broke, and the royal corpse was upset 
into a slough, where it was pitifully bemired, and lay 
for a while an image of the vanity of all earthly 
glory." § 

Robert of Gloucester briefly commemorates, in a couplet 
characterised with great power and singular rhythmical 
beauty, the removal of the bleeding remains to the 
place of interment : 

" To Winchester they bore him, al midst his green wound, 
And ever as he lay, the blood welled to ground." 

Ordericus Vitalis, in scarcely less poetic prose, records 

* Leland says " there was a chapel built on the spot," probably a chantry 
for the repose of the soul of tbe Red King. 

f Ordericus Yitalis. 

X Purkiss, in reward for the service small freehold of about three acres, 
he performed, by conveying the where his descendants have resided 
remains of the deceased sovereign to ever since, carrying on the same hum- 
Winchester, received the grant of a ble craft.— Gouglis Camden's Britan. 

§ Stow ; Spud. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 93 

u that some of tlio servants wrapt the bloody corpse of 
the king in a mean covering, and brought it like a wild 
boar, pierced by the hunters, to the city of Winchester." 
The tidings of the tragic event, had already reached that 
town. The clergy, the monks, the citizens, and the 
poor widows and mendicants, came forth in procession, 
with due diligence, to meet the body, and convey it to 
the cathedral, where it was buried early the next morning, 
in the middle of the choir, opposite the high altar, 
under the central tower. A great concourse of people 
assembled at these hasty obsequies, without any demon- 
strations of grief. There were many assistants at the 
ceremony, but few tears. Fitz- Stephen, the chronicler of 
London, speaking of this monarch by his familiar 
cognomen of " Will le Rous," pithily adds, " at whose 
funeral men could not weep for joy." The Red King was, 
however, much lamented by the soldiers, a class of men 
with whom he was very popular. They were infuriated 
against Walter Tirel, and sought for him everywhere, 
threatening to tear him in pieces, for their royal master's 
death, a fact that sufficiently accounts for his denying 
being so much as present on that occasion. 

Rufus is supposed to have been the monarch prefigured 
in the mystical prophecies, traditionally attributed to 
Merlin, of the kings of England, as " the red dragon 
slain by a murderous dart." 

He perished in the forty-first year of his age, and the 
thirteenth of his reign. There is no evidence that he 
ever made an effort to improve his life, by entering the 
holy pale of wedlock ; nevertheless, if he had not been 
cut off so suddenly, it is not impossible but he might 
have followed the example of his brother Robert, who, 
though several years older, and of equally irregular habits, 
had forsaken his evil ways, and married one of the most 
beautiful and charming princesses of the age. 

William Rufus left two sons* by some obscure 

* Chronicle of "W. Thome ; Baker. 



94 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

woman. The name of only one of them, Berstrand, has 
survived. 

There were many reasons for his being treated as 
reprobate, during his life, and especially after his death, by 
the monastic writers, and at that time it would have been 
difficult to find any other. He had driven the primate 
of England into exile, and seized his temporalities ; he 
had, besides, three bishoprics and twelve vacant abbeys 
in his own hands, at the time of his death. He made 
all taxes fall witK tenfold weight on the clergy, and 
compelled them to strip their shrines and sell their 
plate to pay his military imposts. He had defied the 
orthodox pope without allying himself with his rival 
Clement, the anti-pope, manifesting thereby a thorough 
contempt for both, a peculiarly dangerous example 
to other monarchs ; and he had forbidden his subjects 
to pay Rome-scot, wishing to have the benefit himself 
of all the taxes that could be raised in his dominions. 
Hence he was so thoroughly the object of clerical 
hostility, that in many churches they would not allow 
the bells to be tolled for him, or prayers to be used 
for the benefit of his soul; and when about a year 
after his death, . the tower of Winchester Cathedral 
was struck with lightning, and hurled down upon his 
grave, it was regarded as a manifest indication of 
the Divine displeasure, for his having been interred 
in so holy a place. Honest "William of Malmesbury 
is, however, candid enough to intimate the possi- 
bility that the building might have fallen through 
imperfect construction, even though this much vitupe- 
rated prince had never been buried there. 

The original tomb of William Eufus was doubtless 
destroyed by the fall of the tower ; that by which it 
was replaced is of a very unroyal appearance, of the 
class of monument familiarly termed " dos d'dne." It was 
broken open by the parliamentary troopers in the time of 
the civil wars, when a large gold thumb ring, set with 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 95 

rubies, valued at five hundred pounds, some of the 
remnants of cloth of gold in which he had been 
buried, and a small silver challis, were found in his coffin. 
His bones, and those of some of his royal predecessors, 
which had been rudely exhumed, were afterwards 
collected by bishop Fox, and carefully enclosed in a 
grey marble chest, with thpse of King Canute and 
Queen Emma, a singular violation of royal etiquette, 
if not of propriety, to intrude the bones of our pro- 
fligate Bachelor King into the last resting place of so 
respectable a couple, especially as Emma, after her 
triumphant acquittal from her son's scandalous accu- 
sation, by the ordeal of walking unharmed over the 
nine red - hot ploughshares, made some claim to the 
dignity of a saint. But so it is, and these ill-assorted 
relics of the royal dead, male and female, saint and 
sinner, remain packed up together in the same marble 
chest, placed on the low wall which separates the north 
side of the chancel of Winchester Cathedral from the 
aisle, in company with sundry other marble chests of 
the same fashion, containing the bones of Egbert and 
other Anglo-Saxon kings and prelates, suspended as it 
were between earth and heaven, a marvel and a moral 
to all beholders. 

When Charles II., more than five centuries and a 
half later, visited the spot, the oak, pointed out by local 
tradition as that beneath which Eufus was slain by 
Tirel's arrow, was still standing, and was said "to bud 
and bear leaves miraculously every year on Christmas 
day in the morning, which withered and fell before 
night."* Charles ordered this ancient royal oak to be 
paled round, in order to preserve it from wanton aggres- 
sions, but no vestige of it remained when Gough, who 
relates this circumstance in his valuable additions to 
Camden, wrote. Its place was marked by John Richard, 
earl of Delawar, in the year 1745, by a triangular stone 

* Camden's Britannica, Gough's Additions. 



96 WILLIAM RUFUS. 

obelisk, about five feet in height, bearing the following 
inscription on each side : — 

IEEE STOOD THE OAK 

ON WHICH AN" AEHOW, 

JSHOT BY SIB, WALTEE TYRRELL AT A STAG, 

GLANCED AND STRUCK 

KING WILLIAM II., STJENAMED ETJFUS, ON THE BREAST, 

OE WHICH HE INSTANTLY DIED 

ON THE 2ND OF AUGUST, 

A.D. 1100. 

This stone is in the parish of Minsted, near the pales 
of Malwood park. It was visited by George III. and 
Queen Charlotte in 1789. 

The oaks of the New Forest, planted by William 
Rufus, proved of inestimable value to his successors in 
process of time. The produce of the extensive plantation 
which he was wont facetiously to style, "My great 
garden," supplied for several centuries the timber of 
which the " wooden walls of Old England," the foun- 
dation of English greatness, were built. Therefore, the 
first Bachelor King of England, with all his faults, 
possesses lasting claims on the gratitude of this nation. 

That great navy-building monarch, Charles II., sensible 
of the importance of keeping up these stores, ordered 
three hundred acres of waste land to be added to the 
New Forest, and planted with a nursery of young oaks, 
to assist in supplying the exhaustion of those planted by 
the Red King* 

A curious portrait of William Rufus appears in a 
quaint rhyming black letter chronicle, of " All the Kings 
of England from the Flood of Noe to Queen Elizabeth," 
in the first year of whose reign it is imprinted. He is 
there represented broad -faced and bold -looking, with 
short beard and moustache. The rare work of which 
it forms a portion is in the valuable library of the earl 
of Spencer, at Althorp. The illustrative rhymes appended 

* Camden's Britannica, Gough's Additions. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 97 

are very inferior to those of Robert of Gloucester, or 
Piers Langtoft. The following may serve as a specimen : 

" The mlxxxvii year of our Lord, 

William Rous, his son, next king did ensue, 

A wilfull, prowde man, as chroniclers do recorde ; 
When the Scots their rebellion did renewe, 
And the Welshmen, but he did them subdue, 

Vanquished them in battle, and slew their king, 
Called Rice : according to stories true, 

There was never king since that time reigning.' ' 

Rys ap Tewdwr, the last king of South Wales, was 
slain in battle, near Brecknock Castle, against William's 
victorious general, and great part of the district over 
which he reigned was granted to the wardens of the 
Marches, and such of the Welsh chiefs who were willing 
to swear fealty to the Norman sovereign. Wales was 
subsequently governed by a prince. 

Neither the brilliant military exploits performed by 
William Rufus, nor the great public works for which 
England was indebted to him, have been properly appre- 
ciated. The calumnies of the monkish chroniclers — who 
considered it part and parcel of their duty to pourtray so 
notorious an aggressor of the church in the blackest 
colours — have been adopted by modern historians, and 
repeated with parrot-like fatuity. Honest William of 
Malmesbury, alone, unfettered by the prejudices of his 
order, has, in a few impressive words, given the following 
impartial estimate of our first Bachelor King: "He 
would doubtless have been a prince incomparable in 
our time, had not his father's greatness outshone him, 
and the fates cut short his life too soon for time to 
correct, in maturer years, the errors contracted in the 
impetuosity of youth and the licentiousness of power." 

On his coins, which are very rare, William Rufus 
is shown in full face, with a closed crown, surmounted 
with one arch, ornamented with pearls, and a row of pearls 
7 



98 WILLIAM RUFUS, 

across the forehead. On the reverse is a cross, enclosed 
between four curved lines. 

William Rufus is represented on his Great Seal, 
crowned with a garland- shaped diadem, formed of a 
jewelled circlet, terminating in five points, each sur- 
mounted with a ball. He wears his regal mantle, 
clasped at the throat with a collar of pearls. In his 
right hand he elevates the sword; in his left, the orb 
of empire. On the reverse he is on horseback, clad in 
a close fitting shirt of scaled armour, with a conical 
helmet on his head ; holding a long lance, adorned with 
a swallow-tailed pennon, in his right hand, and bearing 
a small circular shield or buckler on his left arm. 

The legend round the seal is " Willelmus Dei Gratia 
Rex Anglorum" on the reverse, " Willelmus Dei Gratia 
Dux Normanorum" An evident proof that this seal 
was not designed till the year 1096, when, having 
obtained possession of Robert's dominions on mortgage, 
Rufus assumed the style of duke of Normandy. 




Equestrian Effigy of William II., designed from his Great Seal. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 





6 v///y/^/ //// J ^//V/ 



EDWABD THE FIFTH, 



CHAPTER I. 

A Boy Bachelor King — Misfortunes of his parents— Flight of Edward IV. — 
Distress of the queen — Their eldest son born in Westminster Sanctuary — 
His humble baptism — Given his father's name — Triumphant return 
of Edward IV.— Removal of prince Edward and the queen to Westminster 
Palace — Edward IV.'s victories and homicides — Whitsuntide festival 
at Westminster Palace — Young Edward created prince of Wales — Vaughan 
made his chamberlain — Carries him on his arm after the king — 
Birth of Richard of York — Caxton's dedications to the prince of 
Wales — His illuminated portrait at Lambeth — His brother betrothed — 
Edward IV.'s plans for the prince's education — Scarcity of princesses 
— Prince of Wales disengaged — Sent to Ludlow Castle— His uncle, lord 
Rivers, his governor — Educational routine — His readings at refec- 
tion, translated by lord Rivers — No abuse of ladies permitted — 
Prince of Wales betrothed — His court at Ludlow — Queen surrounds 
her son with her relatives — Names of his household officers — Excellent 
government of Wales in his name — His Welsh Seal and banner 
respected — Description of both — His equestrian effigy — (Tailpiece.) 

Full three hundred and seventy years intervened be- 
tween the death of William Eufus and the birth of the 
second Bachelor King of England, Edward V. The 
disreputable life and unlamented death of the reckless 
Norman, whose unrefined nature had disposed him to 
scorn holy matrimony, warned the next fourteen sove- 
reigns, who successively occupied the throne, of the 
expediency of providing themselves with queens, as 
indispensable to the happiness and respectability of 
their courts. Henry L, Edward L, and Richard II. 
married twice.* Edward IV. unfortunately, before 
* See "Lives of Queens of England," by Agnes Strickland, vols, i, ii, iii. 



102 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

circumstances allowed him to wed, rashly entered into 
promises with more than one lady, which subsequently 
caused objections to be raised against the validity 
of his romantic marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, 
the fair widow of sir John Gray, and served as a pretext 
to impugn the legitimacy of their offspring. 

Of all inheritances a disputed sceptre is the most 
woeful ; and if that woe can be aggravated, it is when 
it falls to the grasp of a child. Our boy bachelor king 
presents one of the most noted instances of both cala- 
mities that chroniclers record. No one could say that he 
was born in the purple ; for his birth-place was scarcely 
more reputable than a gaol. 

The Yorkist king, Edward IV., had reigned vigorously 
over England for nearly ten years. In the summer of 
1470, his king-making kinsman and subject, the earl 
of Warwick, thought fit to give a turn to the revolu- 
tionary wheel, which sent the fortunes of the rival 
line of Lancaster uppermost. Edward IV. fled from 
his kingdom, leaving his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, 
and' their three infant daughters, to shift for them- 
selves. 

Elizabeth had already taken her chamber in the pala- 
tial apartments of the queens of England in the White 
Tower,* in expectation of adding a fourth child to the 
royal family. Sick in body and sad at heart, she gave 
way to sudden panic, at the approach of the earl of 
Warwick to London. She was then mourning the deaths 
of her father and eldest brother, lawlessly beheaded by 
Warwick's faction. She knew herself to be an object of 
peculiar hostility to Warwick, and had every reason to 
dread his first attack would be on her place of shelter, for 
in the Wakefield Tower, within view of her apartments, 
lived, as a prisoner, the Lancastrian king, Henry VI., her 

* These rooms are now destroyed ; communicated by a gallery called 
they abutted on the east of the the Queen's Gallery. 
White Tower, with which they 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 103 

former master.* Such, indeed, proved to be Warwick's 
first movement. 

The quaint stateliness and decorous order of all things 
about a queen of England, who had taken to her chamber, 
were so completely broken up, meantime, that Elizabeth 
had at last only two ladies of all her numerous train, to 
assist her in her helpless condition. These were her 
faithful attendant, lady Scrope, and her own mother, 
Jaquetta of Luxemburgh, duchess of Bedford, the mourn- 
ing widow of the earl of Eivers, recently murdered by 
Warwick. Jaquetta was deeply compromised ; her former 
patrons of the house of Lancaster were her enemies since 
her daughter's royalty. Warwick had branded her with 
the stigma of sorcery ; and she was, withal, the most unpo- 
pular woman in England. She had no place of shelter, 
excepting with her daughter ; and the unfortunate queen 
had none better than the ecclesiastical fortress, which 
Edward the Confessor had built and endowed as a species 
of city of refuge for the outlaws, male and female, of the 
city of Westminster. Thither any one might fly from 
instant vengeance, if conscious of offence, civil or political, 
and there wait in security until the fury of the enemy 
was abated, or until terms could be made for surrender to 
trial. Thither did fly (such were the abuses of the 
institution), not only the helpless and unfortunate, but the 
thief, the homicide, and the murderer. Surrounded by 
the demesne of Westminster Abbey, no one had hitherto 
dared violate its high privileges of sanctuary. 

The queen, in the beginning of October, 1470, having 
fresh alarm at the approach of Warwick, entered the 
royal barge at the water gate of the Tower with her three 
little daughters, her mother, and lady Scrope, and ordered 

♦Hall's Chronicle of York and proved the fact; which is also as- 

Lancaster. The queen of Edward serted by one of the most popular 

IV. had been lady of honour to English historians. See "Life of 

Margaret of Anjou. Royal com- Elizabeth Woodville," for full par- 

potuses and other manuscripts, ticulars, "Lives of the Queens of 

besides foreign chronicles, have England." 



104 EDWATtD THE FIFTH. 

her bargemen to row her up the Thames to "Westminster, 
where she landed at St. Edward's bridge, a sort of 
jetty, so called then, and after taking her way to the J 
adjacent Sanctuary, she entered herself and her three 
daughters, with her mother and lady Scrope, as sanctuary 
women.* 

In immediate contiguity to Westminster Abbey, occu- 
pying the ground still known by the name of the Broad 
Sanctuary, extending from St. Margaret's churchyard 
nearly to the great west door of the abbey, opposite to 
the present hospital, stood this privileged refuge for 
misery and guilt, a massive structure of strength sufficient 
to stand a siege. The lower rooms presented a rude 
blockhouse, constructed of enormous masses of Caen 
stone, so massive that when destroyed in the last century, 
great force was obliged to be used in blasting to rend 
them apart. f Over it was built a church for the use of 
the sanctuary refugees, in form of a cross. To the west 
was very conveniently situated the Almonry, where the 
alms of Westminster Abbey were distributed. Most of 
the poor sanctuary folk, the queen's companions in 
misery, had no other sustenance ; starvation was their 
chief dread. It might have proved the queen's greatest 
danger ; if a butcher, John Grould, faithful to the fortunes 
of the line of York, had not given her majesty credit "for 
half a beef and two muttons every week,"J the whole 
party must have been starved into speedy surrender. No 
man, excepting the royal physician, Dr. Serigo, is men- 
tioned as attending the distressed queen, and he possibly 
belonged to the adjacent abbey. Yet, doubtless, her 
lower attendants and servitors followed her, because her 
mother, lady Scrope, and the three little princesses, 
could not have devoured half an ox and two sheep 

* Archseologia — documents from f Dr. Stukeley, the antiquary, 

Cottonian MSS. Fleetwood's Chro- who had seen this curious place 
nicle mentions the same very briefly. while standing. 

t Cottonian MSS. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 105 

every week. The boatmen of the royal barge, very 
important retainers in those days, must have proved 
rue to her, and possibly their English appetites made 
great consumption in John Gould's muttons and 
beeves. 

All the queen's host of nurses, rockers, and bed-chamber 
women having been dispersed by the Lancastrian tempest, 
so suddenly raised by the king -making propensities of 
Warwick, she was reduced to alarming deprivations of 
professional aid. There was, however, one humble official 
who attended such of the womenkind in sanctuary as 
added to their other troubles the distresses and sufferings 
of maternity under difficulties; and to her had the 
queen of England to turn for assistance when the hour of 
her peril and agony drew near. Mother Cobb,* for so 
she was called, proved to be an excellent creature. She 
ran no little risk in these ferocious succession wars by 
assisting the Yorkist queen; yet she acted with pure good 
will, not only the part of midwife, but nurse, when, on 
All-saints-day, November 1st, 1470, the long-hoped-for 
heir-male of Edward IV. made his entry into this world 
of woe, within the gloomy walls of Westminster Sanc- 
tuary, f Speedy baptism was needful, for many reasons ; £ 
but the perplexing question occurred, what was to be done 
for sponsors? Who would dare present the new-born 
outlaw heir-apparent of the fugitive Yorkist sovereign, at 
the font, when his rival, the Lancastrian prince of Wales, 
a full-grown knight and warrior, was expected to arrive in 
England with every favourable wind ? § Thomas Milling, 
the abbot of Westminster, charitably settled this difficulty. 
The infant Yorkist prince was carried into the abbey 

* Fleetwood's Chronicle. 

f Cottonian MSS. — of grants and Tudor, " Lives of the Queens of 

rewards from Edward IV. to this Scotland/ ' etc., by Agnes Stricb:- 

woman for aid given. land; vol. 1, edition 3rd, page 

J See Life of Queen Margaret 121. 

§ Sir Thomas More. 



106 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

with no more pomp or procession than if he had been 
the son of some humble artisan of Westminster. The 
abbot stood godfather ; duchess Jaquetta and lady Scrope 
were his godmothers ; and the sub-priest of Westminster 
performed the ceremony,* which gave him his renowned 
father's name, Edward. 

No child could be born under more disastrous circum- 
stances, yet his birth had no small share in rectifying his 
father's adverse fortunes. Hitherto, the English had 
seen none but female heirs spring from the imprudent 
love-match of Edward IV. and Elizabeth Woodville, 
and the prospect of the sceptre falling to the distaff side 
was viewed with supreme indignation. Love for the line 
of Plantagenet had made them set aside the lineal claims 
of the female heir of Edward III.'s third son Lionel, 
and elect the line of Lancaster, bearing the royal name, 
although only the stem of the fourth son. Nor was it 
until the claims of Mortimer were blended with the great 
Plantagenet name, and the reigning sovereign had been 
long childless, that England remembered the better 
title of York, or Mortimer -Plantagenet. The three 
beautiful little girls of Edward IY. reminded the 
nation once more that the son of Henry YI. had 
grown up, was called Plantagenet, and might prove 
a valiant leader, while fair -faced Elizabeth or Cicely 
of York would lose the name of Plantagenet, by 
marrying, and possibly bring the land under a foreign 
yoke. 

The trembling refugees passed the winter of 1470-1 
in the grim asylum of Westminster Sanctuary. Early in 
March, Edward IY. landed on that mysterious promon- 
tory Ravenspur, near Burlington in Yorkshire, from 
whence more than one revolutionary storm has spread 

* This last link in the incidents bey, printed in the reign of Charles 

of the events of Edward V.'s II., and put into our hands by 

birth, is from a curious anony- the late Mr. Glover, the queen's 

mous history of Westminster Ab- librarian. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 107 

itself over England. No one need search the map of 
England for this famous Ravenspur; it is now gone. 
Like the city of Dunwich, it lies low, beneath the waves 
of the German Ocean. 

The victorious Yorkist king fought his way up the 
northern road to London with incredible celerity. Pass- 
ing the Lancastrian army, in his eagerness to see his 
wife and new-born son, he pressed forward and thundered 
for admittance at Bishopgate, which responded promptly 
by giving entrance to him, as king of England. The same 
afternoon, Holy Thursday, he came to the Sanctuary, 
where his queen, "whom all praised and lauded forbearing 
her misforturfes so womanly/' presented his heir to him.* 
Edward immediately transferred his family to West- 
minster Palace, where a great festival was kept, to which 
the populace were admitted. Much delight was mani- 
fested by the citizens and the poorer classes at the tender 
caresses the king bestowed on his infant heir, his wife, and 
little daughters. Brief space, however, had the king for 
such indulgence ; Warwick was at hand, and England's 
sceptre had to be fought for in a pitched battle. Edward 
kept Good Friday at Westminster. f On Saturday he 
marched, and on Easter Sunday he defeated and slew 
Warwick on Barnet heath. 

That fatal day of the Yorkist victory, landed Margaret 
of Anjou, and Edward of Lancaster, prince of Wales, 
at Weymouth. Edward IY. instantly marched to give 
them battle. His victory of Tewksbury ensued, and the 
slaughter of the Lancastrian prince of Wales, the rival 
of his infant heir, Edward of the Sanctuary. 

The party of Lancaster had respected the rights of 
Westminster Sanctuary; for of course it would have been 
an easy work for Henry YI. and Warwick to have 
ordered the Yorkist queen and her little ones to be 
dragged out, at any time during the winter of 1471. 
But the same mercy was not shewn by Edward IY. 

* Fleetwood's Chronicle. f Ibid. 



108 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

The sanctuary at Beaulieu did not save Margaret 
of Anjou from harsh incarceration; nor the altar 
at Tewksbury, her general, Somerset, from the axe. 

The murder of Henry VI. followed the day after the 
arrival of the Yorkist princes and army in London. He 
had been brought back to the "Wakefield Tower, his old 
prison ; but was found a corpse the morning after Bichard, 
duke of Gloucester, and his northern cavalry, were 
quartered at the Tower of London. No evidence exists 
that Richard personally did the deed ; but his words, 
preserved by one of the retainers of his family,* prove 
that it was very agreeable to him. 

"Now," he said, "we of the family of iTork are the 
only heirs-male remaining of Edward III." 

An immense despatch of homicidal business had been 
speeded forward by the brothers of York, from Easter 
Sunday to Whit-Sunday, 1471. With scarcely time to 
cleanse the sanguine stains from his person, Edward IV. 
held a gorgeous festival at Westminster Palace, on the 
same Whit-Sunday. There he formally presented to the 
surviving peers and gentlemen of his court, his sanctuary- 
born son, recognising him as heir of England, and duke 
of Cornwall by birth, at the same time creating him 
prince of Wales. f 

This recognition formed the ground for the following 
spirited scene of Shakespeare, which we quote as the 
evidence of one of the nearest literary contemporaries 
of Edward V. It is, however, strange that our mighty 
dramatist has never alluded, in his chronicle-plays of 
Henry VI., to a circumstance so poetical as the birth of 
the heir of York in sanctuary. 

* Hall, the chronicler, though of Wales. His father and grand- 

a citizen and recorder of London, father were officers of Richard 

was a cadet of the warlike marcher duke of York, in his French 

line of that name, belonging to regency and struggles for the Eng- 

and still flourishing on the borders lish crown. 

f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 109 

" scene: a state-room in the palace. 
King Edward is discovered sitting on the throne ; Queen Elizabeth, 
with the infant prince in her arms ; the king's brothers, duke of 
Clarence, duke of Glostee, and lord chamberlain Hastings, 
tcith the court near him. 

King Edward. 

Once more we sit in England's royal throne, 

Ke-pur chased with the blood of enemies. 

What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn, 

Have we mowed down, in top of all their pride ? 

Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renowned 

For hardy and undoubted champions : 

Two Cliffords, as the father and the son ; 

And two ^"orthumberlands ; two braver men 

Ne'er spurred their coursers at the trumpet's sound ; 

With them the two brave bears, Warwick and Montague, 

That in their chains fettered the kingly lion, 

And made the forest tremble when they roared. 

Thus have we swept suspicion from our seat, 

And made our footstool of security. — 

Come hither, Bess, and let me kiss my boy : 

Young Ned, for thee, thine uncles, and myself, 

Have in our armours watched the winter's night ; 

Went all afoot in summer's scalding heat, 

That thou might' st repossess the crown in peace ; 

And of our labours thou shalt reap the gain. 

Clarence and Gloucester, love my lovely queen, 

And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both* 

Clarence. 

The duty that I owe unto your majesty, 
I seal upon the lips of this sweet babe. 

King Edward. 

Thanks, noble Clarence ; worthy brother, thanks ! 

Gloster. 

And, that I love the tree from whence thou sprang' st, 
Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit. 

King Edward. 

Now am I seated as my soul delights, 

Having my country's peace, and brothers' loves." 

Ominous precedents, nevertheless, were the Tewksbury 
and Tower murders for the beautiful infant, who, at 
six months old, was smiling among the folds of the 
ermine mantle, and looking up curiously at the golden 



110 ED WARD THE FIFTH. 

circlet of Wales, held above his baby brow. To guard 
against all reciprocity of party violence, the Yorkist 
prince of Wales was given into the care of sir Thomas 
Vaughan,* who had, from his youth upwards, existed in 
broil and battle. In his youth on the Welsh marches, 
then in the regent York's French wars, and lastly in 
the wars of the Roses, from St. Alban's to Tewksbury. 
This soldier was deeply devoted to his feudal chief, as 
the representative of the Mortimers. As the most trusty 
of body guards and of personal attendants, Vaughan was 
appointed chamberlain to the prince of Wales. 

Wheresoever the doating father went, there followed 
stout Vaughan, carrying the prince of Wales on his war- 
like arm, just as the heroic earl of Warwick is depicted 
dandling the infant king, Henry VI. f So the lord of 
Grauthuse,J when the guest of Edward IV., at Windsor 
Castle, describes the infant as "a most fair prince," always 
carried after the king by master Vaughan, whether taking 
morning walks in the woods of Windsor, or at courtly 
banquets and processions of Garter knights. The lord of 
Grauthuse it was who had assisted Edward IV., when 
landed in the utmost distress, after his flight from the 
eastern coast of his kingdom, and to whose friendship the 
whole royal family owed the prosperity it enjoyed. 

The gratitude of the king was exceedingly earnest 
towards his Flemish friend. The infant prince was 
required to give him his hand and lisp his thanks, 
though scarcely two years old ; and of course the heroic 
marchman, who performed the duties of his nursery maid, 
was responsible for the correct behaviour of the prince 
of Wales on this important occasion. 

Many a name, familiar to the readers of English history 
as connected with the mysterious incidents of the poor 
babe's eventful life, crosses us in the Flemish narrative : 

* Vaughan is the name of a J Archseologia, where his con- 
fierce clan of Welsh marchmen. temporary journal is printed. — See 

f Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. " Lives of Queens of England," by 

— Beauchamp MS., British Museum. Agnes Strickland. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. Ill 

we see tliem move and hear them speak in its pages. 
Lord Hastings was even then lord chamberlain to the 
king, and was the principal agent in entertaining the 
foreign guests with luxury and elegance, scarcely to be 
expected in that homicidal court. 

No one can lay ingratitude to the charge of Edward 
IV. ; but if his friends were munificently rewarded, his 
enemies were at the same time inexorably crushed. So far 
from enduring any of those gibings and mockeries, the most 
unerring arrows in the hands of revolutionists at every 
era, used for bringing down into the dirt all above political 
levellers — the victorious Yorkist king made short work 
with any unfortunate joker. For some one among his 
functionaries, called vice -constables of England, settled 
any untoward gibes by certain domiciliary visits, the 
result of which was the suspension of the poor witling 
before his own dwelling. Hard measures for the perpe- 
tration of bad puns ! A vintner, whose public hung out 
the sign of the Crown (so near Westminster Abbey, that 
it abutted on the site where now stands Henry VII. 's 
chapel), made a sneering boast "that he would de- 
clare his son heir to the crown."* Of course he asserted 
he only meant his own tavern the Crown. But the 
Yorkist conqueror was not disposed to have scorn cast 
on his declaration in behalf of his heir born in the 
Sanctuary, which stood within sight of this malcontent 
Lancastrian's hostel. The vice- constable called at the 
Crown one morning, and without troubling either judge or 
jury with so slight an affair, the landlord was soon seen 
swinging on his own sign-post. 

Edward IV. appointed his youngest brother, Richard, 
duke of Gloucester, as commander on the Scottish 
border. The real truth of history is that he seldom left 
his northern government. He chiefly lived where he 

* Stowe's London. Our chrono- Edward IV. in his twentieth year 
logy of this incident differs from our neither would nor could have corn- 
authority, but we do it designedly. mitted this outrage. 



112 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

had been brought up, at Middleham Castle, having 
married its heiress Anne, widow of the Lancastrian prince 
of Wales, by what means has been told elsewhere.* 
Unfortunately for young Edward of York, his uncle 
Richard had an heir, another Edward Plantagenet, whose 
existence excited the ambition of this formidable warrior. 

The throne of Edward IV. was strengthened by the 
birth of a second son in 1474, f at Shrewsbury, whither 
the king had gone, in progress, with his consort. The 
royal visit to the borders of Wales was for the pur- 
pose of superintending preparations at Ludlow Castle, 
for the reception of the heir of England, and his 
educational establishment. 

The new-born prince was named Richard. He was 
afterwards that hapless sharer in imprisonment and death, 
over whose calamities many a reader of English history 
has saddened and pondered. The child, Richard, was left 
in his mother's care entirely, an indulgence which made 
her less exacting, regarding her maternal rights over the 
prince of Wales. The nobility of England murmured at 
the conduct of the queen, whose egotistical fondness they 
considered was spoiling their future monarch, nor did 
some of them scruple afterwards to remind her of it 4 

Great festivals were held at the creation of the infant 
Richard as duke of York. The only remarkable circum- 
stance is that James Tyrrel, who was subsequently so 
deeply implicated in his murder, distinguish^, himself as 
the most valiant squire, at the passage of arms, in the 
lists held in honour of the second son of England. 

The mighty demesnes of the Mowbray, dukes of Nor- 
folk, had devolved on a female infant, whose tiny hand 

* Life of Anne of Warwick, rians say 1472. Sir Thomas More, 

queen consort of Richard III, " Lives Hall, Ferrers, Thomas Hey wood, and 

of the Queens of England," by all who wrote from immediate recol- 

Agnes Strickland. lection, mention considerable differ- 

f Sir Harris Nicolas and Sharon ence of age between Edward's two 

Turner give this date; other histo- sons. 

t Sir Thomas More. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 113 

claimed by hereditary right the office of wielding the 
mighty baton of earl marshal of England. To this 
highly dowered little one, Edward IV. determined to 
wed his boy, Richard, duke of York. The pretty 
pageant of this infant marriage took place at St. 
Stephen's Chapel, Westminster Palace.* The prince of 
Wales led the bride, about three years old. The 
queen led her darling son Richard, who was still 
younger ; and a train of lovely, fair princesses, from ten 
to two years of age, the offspring of Edward IV. and 
Elizabeth Woodville, attended as bridesmaids, f The 
unswerving Yorkist champions, John lord Howard, and 
his heir sir Thomas Howard, were the nearest of kin to 
Anne Mowbray, the little bride of the infant duke of York. 
They saw with dismay the heir-presumptive of the prince 
of Wales created duke of Norfolk, earl of Surrey and of 
Nottingham, with several other of their family titles, and, 
above all, recognised as earl marshal of England. In 
case of the death of the infant duchess of Norfolk, the 
patent of creation secured these titles and great estates 
to Richard, duke of York, and his heirs. £ A downright 
robbery of the property and claims of the staunchest 
adherents of the line of York through every reverse of 
fortune, in the long succession struggles of the White 
Rose. 

It was during "the glorious summer of the house of 
York," wh^i no one foresaw the train that selfishness was 
getting ready for explosion and sudden downfall, that 
patronage for the first book printed in England was 
claimed from the young prince of Wales. The claim 
was appropriate enough, as the infant printiug press 
sprang to birth within a few feet of the spot where young 
Edward of the Sanctuary first saw the light. It has been 

* Sandford's Genealogical History t Northcote's charming historical 

of England; Ancient Palace of picture of this child -marriage places 

Westminster and late House of the group before the shrine of St. 

Commons, by Brayley and Britton. Edward, in the Abbey. 

X Sharon Turner. 
8 



114 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

mentioned that the Almonry of Westminster Abbey 
almost abutted on the Sanctuary, and in this building had 
the abbot of Westminster given Caxton, the goldsmith, 
leave to set up his printing presses, and work them when 
the distribution of alms was not going forward. Possibly 
the first sounds that fell on the ear of the royal child of 
the Sanctuary, was the working of that press which was 
the precursor of all his country's subsequent literature. 

The early promise of' the young prince of Wales, in his 
sixth year, is testified by Caxton in his prologue to his 
translation of the "Historie of Jason,"* by the learned 
Le Fevre, in which he says : 

" I intend, by the license and supportation of our most redoubted 
and liege lady and most excellent princess the queen (Elizabeth. 
Woodville), to present this said book unto the most fair, and my 
most redoubted young lord, my lord Prynce of Wales, our to-coming 
sovereign lord, whom I pray God save and increase in virtue, and 
bring him unto as much worship and good renown as ever had 
any of his noble progenitors, to the intent that he may begin to 
learn read English ; not for any beauty or good inditing of our 
English tongue that is therein, but for the novelty of the histories, 
which, as I suppose, hath not be had before the translation hereof. 
Most humbling beseeching my said most dread sovereign and natural 
liege lord the king, and also the queen, to pardon me so presuming. 
And my said to-coming sovereign lord, my lord the Prynce, to 
receive it in gree and thank of me his humble subject and servant, 
and to pardon me of this my simple and rude translation, and all 
other that luste to read or hear it to correct whereas they shall 
find default." 

Caxton concludes his book with the following aspira- 
tion : — 

" Praying my said lord prince to accept and take it in gree of 
me, his indigne serviteur, whom I beseech God Almighty to save 
and increase in vertu, now in his tender iougth, that he may come 
unto his perfect age, to his honour and worship, that his renown may 
be perpetually remembered among the most worthy. And after this 
present, everlasting life in heaven, who grant him and us that 
bought us with his blood, blesshed Jesus. Amen." 

* Typographical Antiquities, by Joseph Ames, augmented by W. Herbert, 
in 3 vols,, London. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 115 

In the proheme of his edition of Godfrey of Boulogne, 
Caxton makes loyal and affectionate allusion to Edward, 
proposes the histories of his royal ancestors, especially 
the renowned Arthur, as studies for his imitation and 
improvement, that so he may fit himself for the high 
vocation to which it may be the will of God to call 
him. 

Caxton likewise mentions Edward's younger brother, 
Richard. His words prove that at that time he had 
espoused Anne, the youthful duchess, the inheritrix of 
the semi-royal house of Norfolk. 

" I beseech. Almighty God," he says, " to graunt and attroye to our 
said sovereign lord or one of his noble progeny, I mean my lord prince 
and my lord Eichard due of Yorke and Norfolk, to whom I humbly 
beseech at their leisure and pleasure to see and hear read this simple 
book, by which they may be encouraged to deserve laud and honour, 
and that their name and renown may en crease and remain perpetual, 
and after this life, short and transitory, all we may attain and come 
to the everlasting life in heaven, where is joy and rest without end. 
Amen." 

Little did honest Caxton suspect how brief was to 
be the portion of these princely objects of his pious 
aspirations, in the splendour and prosperity to which 
they were then the goodly heirs-apparent and presump- 
tive. 

There is a beautiful illumination among the Lambeth 
MSS. of earl Rivers presenting a book and Caxton the 
printer to Edward IV. The king, wearing his crown 
and royal robes, is seated on the throne, with his sceptre 
in his left hand, which rests on the globe he supports 
on his knee, while receiving the clasped and ornamentally 
bound folio from the earl with his right. The queen is 
seated by the king's side, but a little in the background, 
and the little prince of Wales stands before her, beside 
his father. He wears an ermine-faced cap of estate and 
flowing robes, richly trimmed with ermine ; he grace- 
fully gathers up his robe with one hand. He is very 



116 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

pretty, with a sweet thoughtful expression, rather 
infantine in features. His age is apparently about six 
years.* 

In the Lambeth illumination, old Caxton,f attired in 
a black gown and deep cape edged with white, is kneel- 
ing on both knees before the king, a little in the rear 
of his accomplished patron, Rivers, who only kneels 
on one. One of Edward IY.'s brothers, probably 
Clarence, who was also the patron of Caxton, stands 
on the other side of Rivers, wearing his ermine - 
trimmed robes and cap of estate ; three others, two 
of whom are shaven priests, stand to the right of the 
king, and several attendants appear looking in at the 
door. 

"Whilst his brother York, at the age of two years, had 
been provided with an heiress-bride of immense wealth 
and power, the young prince of Wales, at the more 
dignified age of seven, remained perforce a bachelor. 
No princesses of rank high enough to wed with the heir 
of England were in the royal marriage mart. Louis XL, 
and his homely queen, Charlotte of Savoy, were the 
parents of two princesses ; the eldest, wife of Peter de 
Bourbon, duke of Beaujeu, was a married woman of 
mature age ; and her little sister, Jeanne of France, 

* Walpole lias engraved it for f The father of the British press 

his "Roy aland Noble Authors." He did not live to see the woeful termi- 

declares that Vertue, in his "Heads of nation of the lives for which he had 

the Kings of England," has taken his fervently invoked a bright career in 

beautiful portrait of Edward Y. from the above dedication. He did not 

this the only authenticated portrait survive 1478, as shewn by an entry 

of that fair young bachelor king, in the records of St. Margaret's 

whom he has engraved with the church, Westminster, which speaks 

crown above his head,bearing a strong of mass, torches, and tapers at the 

resemblance to the king his father, funeral of William Caxton, in that 

but as Vertue was an excellent anti- year. Thus Caxton was buried with- 

quary, he, probably, worked from in sound of his own printing press, 

a maturer portrait of Edward, of Another entry, dated 1491, speaks of 

which it is likely there might be a soul -mass for William Caxton. A 

several painted under the auspices of tablet has been raised to his memory in 

the earl of Rivers. this century by the Roxburgh Club. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 117 

dwarfish and very crooked, was betrothed to the heir- 
presumptive of France. Isabel of Castille was but 
recently wedded to Ferdinand of Arragon. She had 
considered herself jilted by Edward IV., and by no 
means kept a dignified silence concerning her wrongs. 
But she was an elective queen, no more firmly settled 
on the throne of Castille than Edward of York on 
that of England. Thus the scarcity of princesses 
caused the hand of Edward of the Sanctuary, prince 
of Wales, to remain undisposed of, contrary to the 
custom of infantine wedlock prevalent in Europe at 
that era. 

It cannot be denied that this promising child required 
education more than a wife. His father, whose great 
abilities in government were conspicuous, in every depart- 
ment excepting self-government, had formed plans for 
bringing up his heir, the excellence of which could scarcely 
be surpassed. At the same time the king removed young 
Edward from the pernicious indulgence of the queen* 
and the corruptions of his own court, he determined 
that the boy should be made the ostensible instru- 
ment of carrying civilization into a district which 
was seldom approached by the royalty of England, 
excepting at the head of an army with banners dis- 
played. 

The miserable state of anarchy in which Wales had 
been for three centuries, was first rectified by the 
vigorous intellect of Edward IV. He abrogated the old 
tyrannical court of the Lords Marchers, and organised a 
presidential government at Ludlow, in Shropshire, one of 
the most beautiful districts in our island, which was at the 
same time the chief town of the Welsh marches. There 
he had built a palace for his heir, the exquisite remains 
of which attract all tourists at the present day. Here 
the young prince had resided occasionally with his 
mother's renowned brother, Anthony Woodville, lord 
* Sir T. More. 



118 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

Rivers, at least, since 1476.* But the king did not invest 
the heir- apparent with the authority of his ancestral 
dignity of earl of March till 1479.f 

Ludlow Castle is about three minutes' walk from the 
town, most grandly situated, with its circular church, 
its massive walls and towers, its grassy courts and 
terraces, above the bright river. There is a beautiful 
and exquisite specimen of an ancient hostelry in the town, 
called "The Feathers," from the prince of Wales' plume, 
with embossed ceilings, antique court and gallery, which, 
possibly, was a building of more dignified occupation in 
the days of the White Rose. J 

At Ludlow Castle the prince of Wales and his court were 
established on the grandest style of royal magnificence. 
Although personally removed from the queen, his mother, 
her family influence followed her eldest son into his 
educational vice-royalty. The Yorkist aristocracy sur- 
rounding the throne of Edward IY. were indignant, yet 
in these days it would be thought that few persons 
could object to the earl of Rivers, who was at once 
the literary star of his era, and the most accom- 
plished chevalier at lists and tourneys. He had fought 
intrepidly by land, and especially by sea, in most of those 
tremendous conflicts which made stable the throne of 
York. It is to be feared that he loved the revel, much 
in the style of his friend and brother-in-law on the 
English throne, and to this fault we shall show may be 
attributed his fall, at a moment when events were so 
nicely balanced as to require the coolest possession of his 

* The Preface of lord Elvers' two years are lost throughout the 

hook, "Dictes of Philosophers/ ' annals of the York reigus. 
proves that such must have been 

tne case - I Toone. Arthur, prince of Wales, 

f Our annalists and chronologists son of Henry VII., Mary Tudor, 

will not allow that this prince com- then acknowledged heiress of Henry 

menced his vice-royalty in Wales VIII., successively kept court at 

until the year 1482. But sir Harris Ludlow, to the great benefit of the 

Nicolas has proved that one or people. 



EDWAKD THE FIFTH. 119 

intellect. Nevertheless, when Edward IV. made this 
brilliant noble lord president of the Welsh marches, and 
consigned his heir-apparent to his hand for education, 
he contrived effectually that his former boon companion 
should perforce lead a more regular life. Such may be 
ascertained by the following disposal of the time of the 
royal pupil at Ludlow, and of his uncle and governor, lord 
Rivers, drawn up by the hands of the mighty sovereign 
Edward IV. himself. Even at that time the kingly warrior 
felt that his death doom had gone forth, and that the 
banquet by day, and the revel by night, had made more 
havoc with his own gigantic strength than his almost 
super-human exertions in winning the regal garland. 
And the heir- apparent, with his gay and gallant governor, 
had to live in the asceticism prescribed by the royal 
reveller on the English throne,* as the best antidote 
for averting the approach of death and decay at the 
early age of forty- two. 

Every day, at Ludlow, the prince of Wales was 
roused early in the morning, and till he was dressed 
no one was suffered to enter his sleeping room, 
excepting the earl Rivers, his chamberlain Vaughan, 
and his right reverend uncle, Dr. Lionel Woodville, 
then his chaplain, who sung his matins. From his 
chamber, the prince, thus attended, entered his closet, 
the gallery-pew, which in palatial residences, generally 
opened direct by the side of the altar of the private 
chapel. Mass was then sung. If the day happened 
to be a festival of the church, a sermon was preached. 
He had two or three bishops in his household; the 
famous orator, Dr. Alcock, bishop of Worcester, was his 
tutor. After mass, he was given a light breakfast, and 
then two hours' close study in school before meat. His 
dinner was early, probably at half-past ten. His dishes, 
carried in " by worshipful folk in our livery," prescribes 
the royal parent,f " and no man is to sit at table with 

* Sloane MS. British Museum, 3479. f Ibid. 



120 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

the prince, excepting lord Rivers, or such as he do allow ; 
and noble stories are to be read aloud to him at dinner, 
such as it behoveth a young prince to understand. All 
virtue, honour, knowledge, and of worshipful deeds, and 
of nothing that shall move him to vice. After dinner, for 
eschewing of idleness, two hours of school. Then instruc- 
tion and practice in exercises of all kinds which his state 
requires him to have experience in." 

The prince was always punctually at evensong, or 
vesper service; after which, the day concluded with "such 
honest disports as were devised expressly for his recrea- 
tion." At nine o'clock, his traverse-curtain— that which 
parted the alcove sleeping place from the rest of his 
chamber — was drawn inexorably, and the prince within, 
attended by his uncle Rivers, and his chamberlain, 
Yaughan, who had the room cleared of all who were not 
on especial duty, and they were .to be very discreet 
persons indeed. Such alone were permitted to approach 
the heir-apparent, from his arising to his retirement 
behind the night traverse of the alcove. Watch was then 
set,* and a sure and trusty guard kept on all sides, 
patrolling the Norman mount of Ludlow, and upon the 
warder's tower of its embattled donjon. 

Lord Rivers had made suitable provision for the " noble 
stories " which his royal master insisted were to regale 
the soul of the prince of Wales, while the temperate 
dinners at the educational palace of the Marches re- 
freshed his body. Rivers had prepared himself for his 
high office by European travel and study. His own 
account is extant of how he came to translate from the 
French, certain "dictes" of philosophers in the English 
edition of the same work, which Caxton printed for him in 
1477. f Speaking of the French edition, said to be the 
first book published by Caxton, Rivers says : " A gentle- 

* Sloane .MS., British Museum, evident that the Ludlow establish- 
3179. ment was several years earlier than 

t From which preface it is most chronicle history allows. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 121 

man lent it to me when I embarked for Spain,* in 1473, 
at Southampton, to divert the thoughts of sea- sickness, 
and greatly edified was I." Rivers affirms that after 
his dread lord, Edward IV., commanded him to Ludlow, 
to attend the prince of Wales, "he had great leisure, 
which he employed in rendering into English these 
Dictes, or Sayings, of the Philosophers." 

No wonder he had leisure to employ himself thus 
virtuously, for his royal lord had laid down the law that 
he was personally to attend the levee and coucher, and all 
meals of his important charge. 

Lord Rivers was too completely preux chevalier to 
endure that his royal pupil should receive from any work 
that had passed under his pen, prejudices against women. 
Accordingly, he carefully expunged all evil stories and 
epigrams to the disparagement of the ladies, with which 
the original French work of " The Notable Wise Dictes 
of Philosophers," abounded. His publisher Caxton inter- 
fered to a degree hardly credible in these days. For he 
gathered together passages his author had rejected, and 
published them en masse at the end of the volume — a 
process not likely to decrease their effect. Moreover, 
Caxton indited a preface, in which he thus discusses the 
proceedings of his author, noble as he was, and brother- 
in-law to the sovereign receiving the presentation copy : 

" I find," says Caxton, in this preface, " that my lord Rivers hath 
left out certain conclusions touching women, whereof I marvelled 
that my said lord hath not writ them. But I suppose that some fair 
lady hath desired him to leave it out of his hook, or else for the very 
affection, love, and goodwill that he hath unto all ladies, he thought 
Socrates spared the sooth (left untold the truth), which I cannot 
. think so true a man and nohle a philosopher as Socrates could. But 
I perceive that my said lord knoweth verily, that such defaults he 
not found in women born and dwelling in these regions. I wot 

* To undertake the fashionable tion. Douglas, when he carried the 

pilgrimage of St. James of Compos- heart of Bruce on the same journey, 

tenella. Killing a few Moors by the had evidently given in to this prac- 

way was considered a godly prepara- tice. 



122 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 






well of whatsoever condition women be in Greece, the women of this 
country (of England) be right good, wise, pleasant, humble, discreet, 
sober, chaste, obedient to their husbands, true, secret, stedfast, ever 
busy, never idle, temperate in speech and virtuous in all their works, 
— or at least should be so ! " 

The year before the death of Edward IV., a contract 
of marriage was agreed upon between the prince of Wales 
and Anne of Bret ague.* 

If there was a happy and well governed corner of the 
earth in the sorely tormented fifteenth century, it was, 
according to our chronicler Hall, the small kingdom of 
South Wales. Under the sceptre of Edward of the 
Sanctuary, guided and supported by his heroic and 
learned uncle, the woes of Ancient Britain ceased. The 
excellent jurisdiction was continued long after the brave 
band of gentlemen who established it, with their innocent 
prince, met lawless and violent deaths. 

There was scarcely an office in the full splendour of 
Edward IV. 's court, but what was to be found duplicated 
in his son's Ludlow palace. More than one name f familiar 
to the reader of English history, startles us when met 
there. Sir William Stanley, for instance, beheaded by 
Henry VII. for merely saying "that if he thought Perkin 
was one of Edward IV. 's sons, he would never draw 
sword against him."J Sir William Stanley was domes- 
ticated with young Edward at Ludlow : he was the 
lord steward of the household. Sir Richard Croft, the 
fierce marchman, who had formerly been governor, to 
their great tribulation, of Edward IV. and his brother 
princes of the house of York, who were partly edu- 
cated at Ludlow, and complained by letter now extant 
of his " odious rule :"§ he was now the prince of Wales's 
treasurer. The president of his council was the celebrated 

* Anne became sovereign duchess f Sharon Turner, 

of Bretagne, which she united to % Lord Bacon's History of Henry 

France by her marriage with Charles VII. 

VIII. and subsequently with Louis § Sir H. Ellis's "Historical Let- 

XII. ters," vol. 1, series 1. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 123 

preacher, Dr. Alcock, bishop of 'Worcester, and another 
prelate, the bishop of St. David's, was chancellor. Sir 
Thomas Yaughan, the guardian of his infant days, was 
still the prince's chamberlain, and never left him by 
night or day. As for the rest of the numerous staff of 
household officers, the queen had literally built around 
her eldest son a wall of her own kindred and connections. 
Besides her brother Anthony, earl of Eivers, deservedly 
first in authority, there was her younger brother, his 
chaplain, Dr. Lionel Woodville ; her second son, lord 
Eichard Gray, who was comptroller ; two other brothers, 
sir Edward and sir Eichard Woodville, councillors ; sir 
Eichard Haut (of the old Kentish family), who had 
married the queen's eldest sister, Jane Woodville ; and 
lord Lyle, brother of the queen's first husband,* was 
his master of the horse. 

Malcontent as were the old nobility at this formidable 
constellation of maternal influences around the rising sun, 
no one could deny that good was effected. For the first 
time since its subjugation, Wales was wisely and benefi- 
cently ruled : " Insomuch," observes Hall, emphatically 
— and that chronicler, descended of Marcher race, is ex- 
cellent authority — " the banner and seal of this infant 
prince of Wales were more respected than those of the 
haughtiest of his warlike ancestors. The Welsh forthwith 
began to enjoy the blessings of peace and good order."f 
These admirable results were of course owing to the 
worth and ability of lord Eivers, who governed in the name 
of his nephew. As to young Edward's seal, for which the 
Cambrian chieftainry testified «so much respect, a charter 
has been found bearing its impress. The veritable effigy 
of young Edward actually is thereupon, riding like a 
gallant chevalier ; but as Ms charter is in Welsh, we refer 
those who can read it to our authority. J The words 

* Sir Harris Xicolas' Excerpta. 

f Hall's Chronicle, Union of York J Arcbseologia, vol. xxx, page 8. 

and Lancaster. — See page 125 of this chapter, (1.) 



124 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

" Sud Wallia " appear on the parchment to which, it is 
fastened. 

The young royal chevalier is represented on his seal as 
prince of Wales, entirely enclosed in the plate armour of 
his era. Certainly, it contrasts unfavourably when com- 
pared with that of William Rufus, who is clad in the 
shirt of mail used by the lightly armed Norman cheva- 
liers who conquered England, or held her in restraint. 
The coat of mail of Rufus, which gave way to every agile 
movement of its wearer, is preferable to a lobster-like 
enclosure, more adapted for security than attack ; and the 
barefaced conical helm, which admitted the free air, to the 
stifling basnet here depicted, which gives the idea of two 
butter boats, the smaller turned downward within the 
other. It works with an upward hinge, like many of the 
period still to be seen in the Tower, and has a little lion 
dominant as crest. Edward Plantagenet rides with 
unbent knees, like Rufus ; but, unlike him, he is com- 
fortably seated in a saddle guarded en croupe with plate, to 
prevent his bearing backward in the tilt, while Rufus 
stands in his stirrups, supported by a small high block 
intervening between his person and his steed. So much 
is it wanting in breadth and width that the skirts of 
his coat of mail conceal it. However, the mechanism 
of this important piece of horse gear is entirely 
revealed in the great seals of his successors, who, 
wearing short jackets of mail, show the saddle. The 
height of some of them is remarkable. Thanks to 
the courtesy of Mr. Ready, who permitted us to view 
his beautiful sulphur impressions of the great seals of 
England at the British Museum, we obtained more infor- 
mation concerning this important accessory to Anglo- 
Norman horsemanship than could reasonably be expected. 

The seal from which Edward's effigy is taken is the 
same which the chronicler Hall declares was so much 
respected by the fierce Welsh chieftains, although only 
representing the person of a boy of remarkably tall 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



125 



and manly proportions. As for the banner he men- 
tions, that is displayed on the reverse. It merely shows 
the three lioncels, or leopards, passant, of the well- 
known English royal blazon, but without quartering the 
French fleur-de-lis, as our readers may observe is the 
case with the housings and shield of the figure herewith. 
The supporters are very curious. A gigantic ostrich 
feather on each size of the blazonry forms them ; round 
the stem of each feather is the prince of Wales' mot 
or battle cry, Ich dien, I serve. Two pigmy lions, half- 
crouching beneath, back to back, are each employed in 
holding one of these feathers in his paw. 




EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



CHAPTER II. 

Accession of Edward V. — He keeps Garter festival at Ludlow — Sets out 
for London — Gloucester and Buckingham meet and delude Rivers at North- 
ampton — King rests at Stoney Stratford — His progress Londonward inter- 
cepted by the dukes — His brother lord Gray arrested with Yaughan — King 
pleads for them fruitlessly — Dukes bring him to Northampton — Bucking- 
ham arrests the king's nncle Rivers there — King's anguish— Gloucester 
proclaims himself Protector — Disperses or arrests the king's household 
officers — Alarm of the king's mother — Carries her son Richard into 
sanctuary — King's progress resumed — Lord mayor meets the king at 
Hornsey — King enters London — Reverence paid him by Gloucester — 
King lodged in bishop's palace at St. Paul's — Conspiracy of Gloucester 
and Buckingham — Duke of York sent for from sanctuary— As companion 
for the king— Denied by the queen— Regal acts of Edward Y. at the Tower 
— Gloucester appointed Lord Protector by privy council — Hastings' 
fidelity to Edward Y. tested by Catesby — Preparations for coronation, 
June 23rd — Stormy scene in Tower council room — Death of Hastings — 
King at Ely House — Surrender of Richard of York — Edward V. 
afflicted by the child's demands for the queen — Buckingham proceeds 
to raise Gloucester to the throne — Sermon of Dr. Shaw against the young 
king — Richard III. elected king— March of northern army on London — 
Edward Y/s friends executed at Pontefract — Popular predictions — 
Richard III. proclaimed king, June 26th — Payments made to Edward 
Y.'s tradesmen — Coronation of Richard III. 

The halcyon days of the Arcadian court at Ludlow 
Castle were suddenly terminated by a letter from the 
queen to her brother Rivers, announcing the death of 
her royal husband, Edward IV., April 9, 1483, and the 
consequent accession of her eldest son as Edward V. 
The widowed queen, who wrote immediately the breath 
had left her husband's body,* charged her brother to levy 
a strong veteran band of the Welsh marchers, to guard the 

* Sir Thomas More. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 127 

young monarch on his way, and hurry him to London 
instantly. 

Well it would have been if the queen had continued 
firm to her first resolution ; but as soon as one messenger 
could succeed another, the first order was superseded. 
The lord chamberlain Hastings, and several of the old 
nobility of the party adverse to the queen's family, had 
browbeaten the unfortunate mother at the first council 
she held, sneered at her orders for the levy and march 
of the Welsh militia in time of profound peace, and 
tauntingly demanded,* " Who was the queen's army 
to fight ? " " Not them surely who had supported the 
throne of York with their best blood ? Not the king's 
valiant uncle, Gloucester, who had just returned from 
the conquest of Edinburgh, and proclaimed his grace so 
dutifully at York?" Hastings concluded with the stinging 
assertion " that the valiant marchmen of Wales were 
called out to support the queen's kindred in the power, 
under Edward V., which they had long illegally exercised 
under Edward IV." Goaded by these taunts, and deluded 
by the appointment of the 4th of May for the coronation 
of the young king, the queen-mother was induced to 
counter- order the Welsh army, which, under the com- 
mand of a general like Elvers, who had twice turned 
fortune in favour of the house of York,f might have 
established her boy's throne in peace. 

Eichard, duke of Gloucester, had proclaimed her son 
in the northern metropolis, where he was all-powerful. 
For in York, Eichard was commander of an army not 
yet disbanded, wherewith he had half conquered Scot- 
land. At the same fatal council the queen received a 
letter from him, written with such profound respect to 
herself, and loyalty to Edward V., that she was persuaded 
that the expense and trouble of the Welsh army would 

* More, Hall, 
t At the sea-fight with Warwick storming of the Tower of London hy 
and Clarence, 1470; and at the Falconbridge, May, 1471. 



128 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



be superfluous. She ordered her brother to bring up her 
son for his coronation, with no other guard than the lords 
and gentlemen who composed his court at Ludlow.* 

Meantime, there was an adversary, nearly connected 
with the queen's family, more quiet at council than 
Hastings, but scarcely less to be dreaded than Glou- 
cester. This was the queen's brother-in-law, the young 
ambitious Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, a prince 
of the blood royal, who was, by female descent, the 
representative of Thomas, duke of Gloucester, youngest 
son of Edward III. How is it possible to comprehend 
the motives of men's actions, without knowing their 
previous lives and connections? Take the career of 
Buckingham, for instance. His father fell fighting for 
Lancaster at the first battle of St. Alban's ; his grand- 
father at Northampton in the same cause. The young 
heir of Stafford was given in his minority, by the victo- 
rious Edward IV., to his haughty sister, the duchess of 
Exeter, in wardship, "to be brought up in love to the 
line of York."f One may well imagine the injurious 
treatment the young Lancastrian received from this 
pernicious woman, who only succeeded in making her 
ward or prisoner a most deadly enemy to the family of 
her royal brother. The marriage of Henry Stafford with 
the queen's portionless sister Katherine did not sooth his 
discontent. J He had received the high title of Buck- 
ingham, but not the great inheritance of the co-heiress 
of the Bohuns, earls of Hereford, § which he claimed when 
the heirs of Lancaster were cut off. [f 

His marriage was the result of a private treaty be- 
tween the queen and her proud and avaricious sister-in- 
law, the duchess of Exeter. It took place in his boyhood. 

* More, Hall. broke, afterwards Henry IV., mar- 

f Sharon Turner. T ^ two sisters, co-heiresses of the 

+ w-iv e w 4. Bohuns, earls of Hereford. 

J William or Wyrcestre. ' 

§ Thomas duke of Gloucester, || Edward of Lancaster, prince of 

and his nephew, Henry of Boling- Wales, and Henry, duke of Exeter. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 129 

Buckingham had been for some time out of favour at the 
court of Edward TV. ; he was malcontent at the appro- 
priation of his rights of inheritance. The king either 
would not or could not restore them, for he had dowered 
the queen on the spoils of Lancaster, and the moiety of 
the Bohuns' fiefs were part and parcel of them. Of course, 
here was sufficient cause of hatred to the queen ; and though 
the word "brother," according to the custom of the times, 
was constantly exchanged between the queen, the earl of 
Rivers, and Buckingham, because he was the husband of 
their sister, Katherine Woodville, yet subsequent events 
proved that the confraternity, on the duke's part at least, 
was not better than that of Cain. 

Another injustice, worse, because it was withal flagrant 
ingratitude, had changed the hearts of lord Howard 
and his heir. The little duke of York was still duke of 
Norfolk and earl marshal, although his infant bride, Anne 
Mowbray, the heiress of both fiefs, had died the pre- 
ceding year.* The Howards, by law as well as by justice, 
ought to have succeeded as her rightful heirs. To add 
outrage to these injuries, the queen prevailed upon her 
royal husband, a few months before his death, to take the 
command of the Tower of London from their old and 
tried friend John lord Howard, f in order to vest that 
important trust in the weak hands of her eldest son, 
Dorset, who was not twenty-one, and by no means 
remarkable either for precocious valour, wisdom, or in- 
tegrity. 

Such were the adverse elements which the unconscious 
boy-monarch set out to encounter, when, at the age of 
twelve years and five months, he was summoned to take 
possession of his regal inheritance, by the title of King 
Edward V. He for ever left his beautiful palatial castle 
at Ludlow, which crowns that sweet landscape called 
by the loving natives the Golden Valley, not to be 
matched perhaps in this island. He left his happy 

* Sharon Turner. f Sir T. More. 

9 



130 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

principality of Wales, which doubtless he believed that 
he himself governed, and in an evil hour commenced his 
progress to his English throne. Lord Eivers had delayed 
him, that the festival of St. George might be celebrated 
at Ludlow with the splendour befitting a king who is 
sovereign of the Garter order. The '24th of April, the 
day after the festival of St. George, Edward V., and 
his cavalcade of nobles, gentlemen, and yeomen, moved 
forward. All were attired in the deepest mourning, 
excepting the young king, who wore Ms blue velvet robe 
of the Garter over his sable garb. So passed Edward V., 
in peaceful progress, through the fair mid-counties of 
England, which were never to behold his return. 

No sooner had Hastings circumvented the queen's 
cautionary order of calling out the Welsh marchmen to 
guard her son on his way to the throne, than Buckingham 
sent Ms favourite agent, one Percival, to communicate 
the news to Eichard, duke of Gloucester. He urged him 
instantly to march. from York with such cavalry as he 
could depend upon; two thousand men would secure 
his mastery in the kingdom ; and, for his own part, if his 
cousin Gloucester brought one thousand, he would join 
him at Northampton at the head of as many of his own 
retainers, wearing "Stafford knots."* Gloucester acted on 
this suggestion ; nor must we omit to remind the reader 
that his principal counsellor, afterwards his notorious 
minister, lord Lovell, was the son of Buckingham's 
mother by her first husband. 

It was on the 29th of April that the progress ol 
Edward V. reached Stoney Stratford, on the very after- 
noon that the junction took place of the forces of 
Gloucester and Buckingham, at the town of Northampton, 
about twelve miles to the north of the young king's har- 
bourage for the night. Historians blame lord Rivers, 
declaring that he sent his royal charge forward to Stoney 
Stratford, while he lingered behind at Northampton ; but 
* More - t Hall. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 131 

that was not the case, for the king's train pursued the 
road from Wales, which the Holyhead mails used to 
travel, and ^Northampton did not intersect that route, but 
Stoney Stratford did. It is evident that Rivers, who rested 
his young royal charge for the night at Stoney Stratford, 
had heard of the squadrons that were filling the northern 
road, and of the arrival of Gloucester and Buckingham, 
with their military array. He therefore diverged, for 
the purpose of ascertaining what this army meant, 
and it is quite evident that he had given lord Richard 
Gray and sir Thomas Vaughan orders to speed London- 
ward with the young king, without waiting for him 
in the morning. 

When lord Rivers entered Northampton, he found it 
swarming with the duke of Gloucester's northern cavalry, 
besides nine hundred retainers of Buckingham, each 
wearing the well-known badge of the Stafford knot. 
There were three inns in Northampton market place, 
joining each other. Gloucester and Buckingham had 
just taken up their quarters at two, the inns situated at 
each extremity, leaving the middle one vacant, like an 
empty trap, set for the nonce, in which Rivers secured 
his lodging for that night.* Immediately afterwards, 
his brother-in-law, Buckingham, visited him in his 
quarters, entering with open arms, and the exclamation 
of " Well met, good brother Scales. "f And withal 
"he wept." 

The fraternal embracings between Rivers and the 
husband of his sister Katherine were scarcely over, when 
Gloucester entered from the other inn. His greeting was 
as hearty: "Welcome, good cousin out of Wales," and 
then followed some moralising congratulations, in Glou- 
cester's peculiar style, on the happiness he felt at the 

* Baldwin's Mirrour for Magis- Woodville, when Buckingham first 

trates, supported by the nearly became his brotler-in-law. Bivers 

contemporary chronicler, Hall. was lord Scales in right of his 

f This was the title of Anthony wife. 



132 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

peace and good will whieh pervaded the times and people 
in general. Rivers was utterly deceived by the apparent 
frankness and condescension of these great princes of the 
blood, whom he had expected to find rudely repulsive.* 

Gloucester invited Rivers to supper at his quarters. 
After the meal, the cups passed ' quickly and merrily, and 
all assumed the semblance of a revel in the old military 
times of Edward IV. Ever as the cup was pushed to 
Gloucester, he pledged Rivers, saying, "I drink to you, 
good coz."f The two dukes kept their wits in working 
order, but Rivers was so overcome that at the end of the 
revel he was led to his inn between both his boon com- 
panions. The dukes J left him in his bedroom, wishing 
him many and affectionate good-nights. There is no 
doubt but they had extracted information from him 
sufficient to guide their manoeuvres for the morrow. 
Certainly, the conduct of Rivers, considering the precious 
charge he had, was inexcusable. 

The moment Rivers was asleep, the two dukes called 
for the keys of his inn, locked the gates, and, appointing 
sentinels, forbade any one to enter or depart. The 
rest of the night was spent by them in arrangements 
of military strategy. They stationed on the high road 
from Northampton to Stoney Stratford, at certain inter- 
vals, men-at-arms, forming a lane. Many country people 
remembered, for scores of years, how the troopers blocked 
up the highway to Northampton, and turned them back 
from market. The two dukes were early as any one on 
the road to Stoney Stratford. There they were joined by 
a third person, who, notorious carouser as he was, had 
certainly kept back from the orgie of the preceding night. 
This third making up their triumvirate, had hitherto 
worked successfully for their plans. He and Rivers were 
most deadly enemies. He came to enjoy the overthrow 
of the i man he hated, and to take official charge of his 

* Sir T. More ; Hall. f Mirrour for Magistrates. 

J Sir Thomas More. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 133 

young royal master. This third person in the plot was 
lord Hastings, the king's lord chamberlain.* 

Early as the dukes and their coadjutor were at Stonoy 
Stratford in the morning, the young king and his caval- 
cade had nearly got the start of them, for they were all 
mounted and moving down the hill towards London when 
Gloucester and Buckingham galloped up. Alighting and 
kneeling before the king in homage, they greeted him 
with professions of loyal love and veneration, adding, that 
" They had hastened to meet him on his journey, for the 
purpose of attending him, and doing him dutiful service 
by the way." Rising from his homage, Buckingham gave 
the word, in a loud tone of command, " Gentlemen and 
yeomen, keep your places, and march forward !"f The 
royal progress again pursued the London road; but 
before they had well cleared the little town of Stoney 
Stratford, one or other of the leaders of this formidable 
addition to the party contrived "to pick a loud quarrel " 
with lord Richard Gray, the king's half-brother .J Either 
Buckingham or Gloucester, or both, accused him of con- 
spiring with his brother Dorset and his uncle Rivers to 
rule the king and realm during the ensuing minority, 
"bringing, withal, a special charge against his brother 

* HalPs Chronicle, and Mirrour that the term "brother," constantly 

for Magistrates. We must not de- used by Buckingham, betokened the 

spise the Mirrour because it is in connection by the marriage of Ka- 

verse. Almost all chronicles written therine Woodville. The Mirrour says, 

in English, until Fabyan's, were in speaking in Hastings' person : 

verse. The principal contributor to ' ti . .. . , 

,,. ,, .. r „ \ . . , . . . "To meet the king in mourning dress 

this collection or metrical biographies , 

was lord Sackville, Queen Elizabeth's With q*"^ and with wily Buck . 

near kinsman, whose father was a con- in°-hame." 
temporary, and his mother knew all 

the traditions of the royal family. Again 

The ease and mtimacy with which «i helped the Boar and Buck to cap- 
he gives the dialogue between Rivers tivate 

and the two dukes shows he knew, Lord Rivers, Gray, sir Thomas Vaughan, 

what few at the present day could tell, and Haute." 

t Sir T. More. % Ibid ; Hall ; Mirrour ; Holinshed. 



134 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

Dorset, as governor of the Tower, of shipping the late 
king's treasure from the Tower wharf."* 

The young monarch, with tears, endeavoured to 
compose the strife, which raged the higher the more 
earnestly he pleaded for his brother. " I cannot tell," 
said he, "what my brother Dorset has done at the 
Tower of London ; but, in good faith, I can well answer 
for my uncle Eivers and my brother Richard here."f 
But the dukes arrested lord Richard on the spot, sir 
Richard Haut was made prisoner at the same time, 
together with the faithful Vaughan, who had never 
before been parted from his royal charge. Thus Edward V. 
suffered all the agonies of losing, at one blow, parent, 
nurse, and personal protector. 

Back the whole party were instantly countermanded to 
Northampton by the evil ones, who had thus crossed the 
young king's peaceful line of march. Deep sorrow sat on 
the fair features of the boy-king; tears fell from time 
to time from his eyes when he saw led as captives 
his best beloved brother, lord Richard Gray, and that 
faithful chamberlain, sir Thomas Vaughan, in whose 
arms he had been cradled. $ 

While the cavalcade was approaching Northampton, 
the servants of lord Rivers began to stir for the morning, 
and found that the inn was locked, and all within were 
prisoners, closely guarded. They woke their master — 
whose sleep was heavy after his revel — by coming to 
his bedside with exclamations of alarm, telling him "the 
dukes had gone their way, and, taking the keys of his 
inn, had left him prisoner." So completely was Rivers 
deceived, that he supposed his princely boon companions 

* Sir T. More. f Ibid ; Hall. 

X Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, etc., by Miss Agnes Sf rickland,vo1. 

vice-chamberlain of James V. of 1, 3rd edition, pp. 169 — 172. The lord 

Scotland, gives a curious account of of Grauthuse, in his journal, notes just 

his duties. See Life of Queen Mar- the same of sir Thomas Vaughan' s 

garet Tudor, u Queens of Scotland/' attendance on his young charge. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 135 

were playing out a jest,* and had taken this method of 
ensuring their earlier arrival at Stoney Stratford. 

By the time he was dressed, Gloucester and Bucking- 
ham returned. They were desirous of acting out their 
parts as speedily as possible, and therefore admitted 
Rivers to their presence. " Brother,'' exclaimed he, 
merrily, to Buckingham, "is this how you serve me?" 
The reply was in a different tone. Indeed, according to 
the poetical chronicler — Buckingham, 

" stern in evil sadness, 
Cried, ' I arrest thee, traitor, for thy badness.' " f 

"Arrest," said Rivers, " why, where is your commission ? " 
Buckingham instantly flashed out his sword, and all his 
party did the same. Oppressed by numbers, Rivers sur- 
rendered without further resistance, J and was forthwith 
put under guard in a separate chamber from the prisoners 
previously seized at Stoney Stratford. Hastings was 
doubtless present at this transaction, and took possession 
of his young royal lord, while Gloucester proceeded to 
his next manoeuvre, which was to arrest all Edward V.'s 
household officers likely to be dangerous, and disperse the 
rest. A new household was next packed out of the con- 
federates of the triumvirate, and instantly put on duty. 
" Whereat the king wept."§ Can it be doubted that lord 
chamberlain Hastings was at the head of this unwelcome 
company of superseders in the royal service ? Then 
proclamation was made in the streets of Northampton 
that the king's uncle, Richard, duke of Gloucester, was 
appointed Lord Protector of his grace's person and realm. [| 

* More ; Hall. ings, observing that neither the king 

f Mirrour for Magistrates. or queen elected him as such. No 

J Ibid ; Hall. parliament was then sitting, as sir 

§ Sir T. More. Thomas More observes, nor had 

|| Mirrour for Magistrates, which Edward IV. left any will providing 

alone preserves this tradition as for the government of his sons' 

part of the Northampton proceed- minority. 



136 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



By the time this great press of business was dispatched, 
the dinner hour arrived, and the king was served with 
as much state and punctilio as the inns at Northampton 
could arrange. 

The royal youth had dried his streaming tears, but 
a settled gloom sat on his countenance; he neither ate 
nor spoke. Something in his silent displeasure perhaps 
recalled Edward IV. in his dangerous moods, for it had 
more effect on his self-appointed protector than the most 
passionate demonstrations of his anguish in the morning. 
Gloucester took the readiest means of dispelling the cloud 
on the royal brow, by sending a kind message to lord 
Rivers, with a. dish full of dainties, desiring him "to be 
of good cheer, for he was his good friend, and all now 
would be well/' Rivers requested the bearer of the 
viands and message to deliver both to his nephew, lord 
Richard Gray : "For he is young/' said he, "and unused 
to change of fortune ; but I have seen too much of it 
to care one whit for these ups and downs ."* 

Gloucester sent off the brave but too careless veteran 
into confinement in his own stronghold of Sheriff Hutton, 
in Yorkshire. The other captive friends and servants 
of the young king were incarcerated at different jails 
in the north, until in due time they met at fatal 
Pontefract.f 

That very evening, news was brought to the queen 
at Westminster Palace of the sinister proceedings at 
Northampton. Struck with terror at her own imprudence, 
in having countermanded the army of Welsh marchmen 
for the young king's escort to London, the queen antici- 
pated the worst. That night she took sanctuary, not as 
before in the building so called, but in the abbot's resi- 
dence in Westminster Abbey. Here she gathered her 
five young daughters and the heir-presumptive, her son, 
Richard, duke of York, a child of nine years, and entered 

* Hall ; the Mirrour has the same incident, 
f Sharon Turner : sir Harris Nicolas. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 187 

herself and them as sanctuary refugees. The object of 
the queen's' alarm was neither Gloucester nor even her 
brother-in-law, Buckingham, but her husband's late 
favourite, the lord chamberlain Hastings. When she 
found that her eldest son was in his charge, her terror 
knew no bounds. For a fierce quarrel* between her 
brother Rivers and Hastings had taken place a few years 
previously. Hastings had narrowly escaped the block, 
and actually underwent a sharp dose of imprisonment in 
the Tower. Although the strong affection borne to 
Hastings by the king carried him safely through these 
dangers, the queen knew Hastings had vowed vengeance 
against her brother Rivers and all his connections. Great 
jealousy among the English nobility had been excited 
against her brother Rivers by her prevailing on her royal 
lord to load him with trusts and favours. He was the 
governor of the prince of Wales, custodian of his person, 
and ruler of his principality. The young earl of War- 
wick had been, since the mysterious murder of his 
father Clarence, given as ward to Rivers. The queen 
herself had possession of her second son Richard. Thus 
strengthened, with the aid of her valiant brother, Eliza- 
beth meant to govern England during Edward V.'s 
minority. The capture of Rivers, and the transfer of the 
young king into the hands of the mortal enemy of her 
house, the lord chamberlain Hastings, paralysed her mind, 
Throwing up all chances in her terror, she fled to the 
protection of the church, conceiving that the man who 
would have laid down his life for her children, and who 
actually did so, was their principal foe. The lord chan- 
cellor was then Dr. John Scott, also called Rotherham, 
archbishop of York, a great and good man. He could 
answer for Hastings' loyalty to the heirs of his late 
master, yet deeply suspected their real enemies. He 
followed the terrified queen into the precincts of West- 
minster Abbey, and had an interview with her in the 

* Sir T. More ; Hall. 



138 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

abbot's ball,* wbere " sbe sat a-low on tbe rushes, all 
desolate and dismayed,"f wbile ber people were, witb 
mucb rumble and clatter, bringing in from Westminster 
Palace furniture for her use. 

After consoling tbe bapless royal widow, tbe chan- 
cellor - arcbbisbop said, " He bad bad a message from 
lord chamberlain Hastings, on whose fidelity she might 
depend, as the devoted friend of ber husband's children." 
"Ah, woe worth him!" passionately exclaimed the queen- 
mother, " he thinks of nought but to destroy me and my 
kindred." Then the archbishop gave her the great seal, 
and bade ber " Be of good cheer, for while she kept her 
second son with her in sanctuary, Edward V. would be 
safe," adding, "that if any other but the young king 
were to be crowned, be would crown young Richard of 
York king, in the abbey, tbe next day." 

In a few hours, Dorset, instead of making efforts 
to assist them, threw up his important command at the 
Tower of London, and, like the craven that he was, 
took refuge with tbe queen, his mother, in Westminster 
Abbey. J He was soon followed by ber younger brother, 
Dr. Lionel Woodville, who, we have seen, was the young 
king's chaplain. § He bad either escaped at Stoney 
Stratford from the fate of his relatives, or tbe Protector 
dared not touch an ecclesiastic. 

It was May 4th before tbe royal progress drew near to 
London. Meantime, the duke of Gloucester behaved with 
the greatest attention to bis dejected nephew. Yet when- 
ever he had an opportunity, he lamented tbe perverse 
designs of Rivers and the queen's relatives to murder 
him. His attendants shewed to tbe crowds of common 
people, who flocked to see him, certain barrels || of ammu- 
nition, provided for that purpose, and declared "it 
would be charity to the nation to bang up such con- 

* Now the school-room of the Westminster scholars, 
f Sir T. More. J Sir Harris Nicolas' Life of Elizabeth of York. 

§ Sharon Turner. || More's Edward V. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 130 

spirators. At Hornsey Park, the royal cavalcade was 
met by tlio lord mayor, Edmund Shaw, goldsmith, who, 
with the aldermen in their robes of office, and five 
hundred of the principal citizens, clad in violet colour, 
conducted the young king with infinite reverence to 
Bishopgate. 

The loyalty of the duke of Gloucester edified all 
beholders, for he rode bareheaded before the king, bowing 
cap in hand, and with the other hand pointing him out, 
exclaiming, from time to time, in a loud voice to the sur- 
rounding crowds, " Behold your prince and sovereign ! " 
The young monarch was conspicuous not only by 
riding his white jennet in the midst of his sable-clad 
cavalcade, and wearing the blue velvet mantle of the 
Garter, but for his beauty, and the sorrow that sat on 
his fair features. 

The lord mayor accompanied his sovereign to the 
palace of the bishop of London, at St. Paul's, where he 
was left to repose until his uncles had matured their 
schemes. Meantime, Edward V. was treated with all the 
respect due to an English sovereign. A residence at the 
London episcopal palace, and a visit to the shrine of St. 
Erkenwald, in Old St. Paul's, was always preliminary 
to keeping court at the Tower of London, on the eve 
of a coronation. 

The royal magnificence that surrounded the young 
sovereign of England at the palace of St. Paul's had 
not effaced from his memory his early friends and true 
protectors. Buckingham, from some change of policy, 
sought to make himself agreeable to Edward, and paid 
him the most obsequious attentions. Lowering looks, and 
ever and anon a threat • of vengeance for the part he had 
played at Northampton, were the best return the treach- 
erous courtier obtained from the young royal Plantagenet.* 
Well the boy knew that all sorts of calamities impended 
over the beloved uncle Rivers, the dear brother Richard 

* Sir T. More. 



140 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



Gray, and the faithful Vaughan, on whose warlike arm 
he had been brought up from infancy, and wiio was 
doubtless the dearest of the three. The young king's 
imprudence has been blamed, yet a very small amount of 
worldly wisdom is brought by twelve or thirteen summers. 
The royal child was like a newly-fledged bird, surrounded 
by the limed snares of the fowler, which could neither 
ruffle a feather or flutter a wing without hastening its 
destruction. 

Then the self-appointed Protector was observed to 
insidiously condole with Buckingham on the evident 
aversion thus manifested to him by the king. And he 
was heard to put the leading questions, of " Had he not 
gone too far ? What was now to be done ? Would the 
young king ever forget the grief inflicted on him at 
Northampton ? "* 

Gloucester summoned the privy council, and presided 
over its sittings, directly he brought the king to London. 
It was found that no one among its members objected to 
his assumption of the regency. Every person seemed to 
consider the king's brother had more right to it than the 
queen's relatives. Steps were taken for confirming him 
in the administration of the government. The coronation, 
which had at first been appointed to take place on 
the 4th of May, was now put off till the 22nd of June,f 
and a new parliament was summoned in the young 
king's name, to be holden at Westminster, June 25th. J 
Notes of an address prepared for opening the sessions 
are in existence, but much defaced by fire. This curious 
document has betrayed some historians into the error of 
asserting that the young king did certainly take his seat 
on the throne, and open his parliament in person ; but 
the writer clearly shows this address was not to be 
* Sir T. More. 

f Continuator of the Chronicle of J The writ of summons addressed 

Croyland ; Sharon Turner's History to the archbishop of Canterbury, is 
of England, Edward V. dated May 13th. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 141 

spoken by the king, but read by the chancellor, for he 
says, " My mind is, that this should be the word of the 
king, and by me to be spoken at this time, ' God hath 
called mo at my tender age to be your sovereign.'"* The 
appeal to parliament for supplies was prepared in these 
words: "Who can suppose but that they that see 
the most toward and virtuous disposition of our sovereign 
lord that now is, his gentle wit and ripe understanding, 
far passing the nature of his youth — who can think but 
the lords and commons of this land will not agreeably 
purvey for the sure maintenance of his high estate as 
any of their predecessors have done to any other king of 
England afore ? " There is also the proposition of con- 
ferring the office of protector on the king's uncle, the 
duke of Gloucester, introduced with great laudations 
of the noble qualities of that prince, " in whose great 
prudence, wisdom, and fortunes, resteth at this season 
the defence of this realm; as well against the open 
enemies as against the subtil and feigned friends of the 
same."f 

Gloucester complained exceedingly, in council, of the 
queen's perversity in keeping the second prince of the 
crown with her in sanctuary ; as if this royal child of 
tender years could be a criminal. He proposed the plan 
of taking him out by force. However, cardinal Bourchier, 
the archbishop of Canterbury, himself a prince of the house 
of York, X and a great courtier, undertook to negotiate with 
the queen, for the purpose of' inducing her to deliver up 
her youngest son, in order that he might cheer his brother 
Edward V. with his company. The queen was impene- 
trable to all the courtier cardinal could urge, and con- 

* Cottonian MSS, Vitellius, 10. That the young king met and was in- 

f Ibid. These are clearly only the troduced to the privy council, and 

notes or rough draught of the ad- S aye his assent to hls uncle ' s P rotec " 

dress intended to be read by the torate > 1S P robable - 
chancellor on this important occasion ; J Son of Isabel Plantagenet, aunt 

but no parliament assembled till of Edward IV., Clarence, and Glou- 

seven months after Edward's murder. cester, etc. 



142 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

tinued to keep, sedulously, both the little duke of York, 
as well as the great seal, which had been consigned to her 
by the lord chancellor. Great blame was cast by the 
council on that prelate : and a new seal was prepared 
for Edward V. After waiting in vain the arrival of 
his brother, for some days, the young king was con- 
ducted in state to the Tower of London, where he was 
attended in the regal suite of apartments with all the 
homage that had been offered to his predecessors. No 
one can doubt that he was in the personal care of his 
lord chamberlain, Hastings, and, while that was con- 
tinued, the king was safe enough, although there is every 
reason to suppose he approved of Hastings as little as he 
did of Buckingham. 

It was discussed in the privy council whether the 
king could not abide in some more suitable place than the 
bishop's palace. On this opinions differed, some named 
Westminster, others the priory of St. John's, Clerkenwell, 
but Buckingham proposed the Tower, which being con- 
sidered the most proper, he was removed thither, but not 
immediately, as the date of some of his grants prove he 
was at the bishop's palace on the 9th of May.* He was 
settled at the Tower ten days after, as proved by the 
first of a series of documents signed with the autograph of 
Edward V., countersigned by his uncle, and bearing the 
notice that the king acted by his advice as his defender 
and protector. The earliest is dated from . " Our Tower 
of London, May 19, 1483, first year of our reign."f It 
is to the effect, that it was the king's pleasure "that 
Edmund Halt be discharged from his office of keeper 
of our gaol at Nottingham, and Eobert Ligh appointed 
in his place." 

From the name of Edward Halt, or Haut, there is 

* Continuator of Croyland Chronicle* 

f This autograph is under a show- the English sovereigns. It belongs to 
case in the British Museum, in its the Vitellius division of the Cottonian 
chronological order, among those of collection. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 14'3 

reason to surmise that the young king was made to 
displace his own friends, and fill up their places with 
his enemies. But while performing these acts of 
formal regality, no one must suppose that he was 
not surrounded with all the pomp and service belong- 
ing to an English monarch. Two of his warrants are dated 
at TTestniinster Palace,* proving that he held state there 
occasionally. Although so near, no trace can be found 
that he was permitted to have an interview with his 
mother, then at Westminster Abbey. The duke of 
Gloucester was proclaimed protector to his nephew, 
Edward Y., by order of the privy council, May 27, 
1483. f It is probable that the young king had to appear 
in regal state at the privy council, and ratify the appoint- 
ment of his uncle to the regency. 

The day that was actually fixed for Edward Y.'s coro- 
nation is mentioned in the royal letters issued in his name 
by the Protector, addressed to fifty persons by name, 
among whom were lord Ormonde, lord Staunton, the son 
and heir of lord Bergavenny, (one of the Nevilles, his 
cousins,) lord Grey de Euthen, the son and heir of lord 
Cobham, Henry Gold, alderman of London, and Otes 
Gilbert, esquire, to this effect : — 

" Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well, and by the advice 
of our dearest uncle, the due of Gloucester, protector of this our 
royaume during our young age, and of the lords of our council, we 
write unto you at this time willingly, nathelesse, charging you to 
prepare and furnish yourself to receive the noble order of knighthood 
at our coronation, which by God's grace we intend shall be solemnised, 
the 22nd day of this present month, at our palace of Westminster, 

* Sharon Turner. 

f Toone's Chronology. It is added the archbishop committed to one of 

that sir Robert Brackenbury was the prison fortresses of the Tower 

about that time made lieutenant of of London. He likewise arrested 

the Tower. The office of lord chan- Edward IY.'s late secretary, Oliver 

cellor was taken from the archbishop King, a most unpopular person, and 

of York and given to the bishop sent him to the same kind of du- 

of Lincoln by Gloucester, who had ranee. 



144 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

commanding you to be here at our Toure of London, four days afore 
our said coronation, to have communication with our commissioners 
concerning that matter, not failing hereof in any wise as ye intend to 
please us, and as ye will answer. 
" Given the vth day of June."* 

These young heirs of nobles and gentles were for the 
minor king's little knights of the Bath, to be dubbed at 
the Tower, probably by his hand. It was the etiquette 
for a youthful sovereign to have his knights of the Bath 
about his own age. His henchmen and pages were all 
boys. 

The Protector now exercised his high authority 
with legality. Hitherto he had gained the objects of 
his ambition with wonderful facility. He had wrested 
all power from the hands of the queen-mother and 
her brothers, and had a prospect of reigning during 
the minority of his royal nephew,, for some years. His- 
torians have given Gloucester, who was at this period 
only thirty years of age, credit for more forecast and 
farsightedness than he possessed. Had he aimed at 
the crown from the first moment of Edward IV. 's 
death, it is scarcely possible that he would have put 
such impediments in his own way as proclaiming Edward 
V. at York, and personally showing him as king at his 
public entry of London, likewise causing him to per- 
form many acts of regality. The regency evidently was, 
at first, the sole aim of Gloucester's desires. The 
regency soon gained with wonderful ease by Bucking- 
ham's unscrupulous activity, Gloucester now wanted more. 
Hitherto all had been transacted by Buckingham's bold 
genius for political intrigue, without any need of the 
Protector coming prominently forward. If the same 
clever diplomacy could contrive to force the crown of 
England from Edward Y., Eichard found himself 
desirous of receiving it. About this time he succeeded 

* Letter addressed to Otes Gilbert, page 147, from the original docu- 
esq. , printed by sir Henry Ellis, ment MS., Harleian,British Museum, 
second series of Royal Letters, vol. 1, 433, fol. 227. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 145 

in making his cousin understand his wishes. The pair 
soon after agreed as to terms. As soon as Bucking- 
ham had overthrown Edward V. and lifted Richard 
of Gloucester to the English throne, he was to receive 
a large sum (from the treasure, which the late king 
had hoarded in the Tower), in payment for the 
arrears of the earldom of Hereford, and he was to be 
invested with that fief at the earliest possibility. Last 
and dearest to the pride of Buckingham, his daughter 
was to be married to the young son of Richard — was to 
become princess of Wales, and in due process of time, 
queen consort of England.* 

Buckingham soon began his machinations for the ruin 
of Edward Y., with the same daring celerity which secured 
to Gloucester the regency of England. Yet the young 
monarch was in the personal keeping of a great military 
leader. Hastings was the rival in arms of earl Rivers, 
the most successful general and powerful champion of 
his time. Hastings had shared in many a terrible battle 
by the side of the warrior king, Edward IY. He knew 
how to manage and rule the turbulent citizens of London. 
A dangerous insurrection had been raised since the over- 
throw of the queen's party, which Hastings had vigor- 
ously and speedily suppressed, f Buckingham's first 
move was to know if this formidable statesman- warrior 
had a price, and what it was he required ? Hastings 
had patronized at the court of Edward IY. a young 
law student, Catesby by name, who was looked up to as 
one of the most rising statesmen of the day. The lord 
chamberlain greatly loved Catesby as a friend, left all 
his affairs in his hand, and confided to him entirely 
his thoughts and plans. Buckingham soon found that 
Catesby had a price, and that he was willing to be 
turned to any use the established government pleased. 

* Sir T. More. niclers mention it as arising from 

•f Polydore Vergil ; Continuator of the queen's retreat to saactuary, but 

Croyland. Toone and the city chro- vaguely as to date. 
10 



146 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

Buckingham bade him ascertain whether his patron would 
consent to the deposition of Edward V. and the accession 
of the duke of Gloucester. Catesby took an early oppor- 
tunity of tempting Hastings, whose answer was that of 
the most uncompromising fidelity to the heirs of his be- 
loved master, Edward IV. The trial had been made so 
artfully that no suspicion arose in Hastings' mind of the 
originators. He only supposed that his favorite, Catesby, 
was arguing on the aspect of affairs for his future benefit. 
Catesby reported to his new employers that Hastings 
was impracticable, completely devoted to the cause of 
Edward V.* 

While these secret springs and snares were at work, the 
public attention was wholly bent on the approaching 
coronation, preparations for which seemed constantly 
progressing, yet never completed. The word went among 
the citizens that one council sat at Baynard's Castle for 
the forwarding of the coronation ; and another at Crosby 
House, the residence of the Protector, in Bishopsgate, for 
retarding it.f In truth, the Court of Requests, for coro- 
nation service, presided over by lord chamberlain Hastings, 
assisted by lord Stanley, who was lord steward of 
the household, sat every morning at Baynard's Castle, 
the dower palace of Cicely, duchess of York, mother of 
the Protector and grandmother of Edward V., and in fact, 
one of the greatest enemies the young king had. J The 
Court of Requests was removed from its usual place, the 
Painted Chamber, under the pretence that it was too near 
the forlorn court of Elizabeth Woodville, in sanctuary. 
Indeed, nothing could have been more dangerous for 
Gloucester than a thorough understanding taking place 
between Hastings and the queen-mother. Jane Shore, 
her husband's late mistress, whom that king had thrust 

* Sir T. More ; Hall. prove lie wrote to his mother, in- 

T , . , forming her of his ambitious progress 

day by day. We believe she insti- 
X Letters of Gloucester, extant, gated his crimes. Archseologia. 

4 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 147 

on his wife as one of her attendants,* had, since his 
death, lived with Hastings, it seems. Jane Shore must 
have had sufficient intercourse with the queen, to excite 
the Protector's rage. It is probable too that Gloucester, 
by his vengeful hatred to Jane, dreaded that she would 
reconcile the queen and Hastings, and this was the 
motive for the sudden and impetuous blow that soon 
fell on them.f 

The principal officers who held places in the young 
king's household, and many others who owed feudal 
service to the crown, obeyed a summons for a privy 
council, June 13th, and attended betimes that morn- 
ing in the gloomy council chamber of the Tower. 
It was the nature of their employments that they 
should perform various special services at the corona- 
tion. 

Among other requisites, Edward V.'s coronation ser- 
mon was prepared; it was to be preached after the 
bidding of the beads, now called "the bidding prayer," 
and generally used in cathedrals. In the prayer for 
royalty, which had been certainly used ever since the 
demise of his father, this form of petition occurs : "Ye 
shall pray for our new prince of the best hope and 
sweetest disposition, our dread king Edward V., and 
the lady queen Elizabeth, his mother, and all the royal 
offspring.":!: 

There is in the Tower of London a remarkable apart- 
ment, belonging to the suite formerly inhabited by our 
Anglo Norman and Plantagenet sovereigns. It extends 
the whole length of one side of the White Tower, and is 
furnished with a long oaken table, gloomily lighted by a 

* Thomas Heywood ; Hall. that the fury of Gloucester was ex- 

f " Historie of England," by Poly- cited by a secret meeting lord Hast- 

dore Vergil, who, from his ac- i^gs held in St. Paul's church with 

quaintance with Margaret Beau- the friends of the young king, 
fort, the wife of lord Stanley, had J-The MS., both of prayer and 

means of knowing the truth, if that sermon, are in the British Museum 

politic lady chose to reveal it, declares at present. 



148 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

single window at the upper end. Such is the famous 
council room of the Tower, declared by the traditions 
of that place to be nearly in the same state at present as 
on the eventful morning of June 13th, 1483. 

Lord Hastings, as lord chamberlain, was the great 
man of the day. He had probably been at the Court 
of Requests in Baynard Castle, on business, that morning. 
He was in high spirits, and as he rode down Tower 
Street, or Tower Wharf, as it was called at that time, 
he was joined by sir Thomas Howard, whom he 
usually considered an enemy. However, this noble, 
greeting him pleasantly, told him the news current at 
the Protector's court, that lord Rivers, lord Richard 
Gray, vice- chamberlain Vaughan, and sir Richard Haut 
were about that time suffering death under the hands 
of the executioner, at Pontefract Castle.* Hastings 
expressed the utmost exultation, but was rebuked by 
his friend, the lord steward Stanley, who, from neigh- 
bourhood in the north, knew more of the regent 
Protector's character than Hastings did. Stanley, who 
had been ill, told an ominous dream of warning against 
Gloucester, at which the jovial lord chamberlain was 
inclined to laugh.f 

At nine o'clock, the Protector entered the Tower 
council room, rather hurriedly, yet with a smiling 
countenance, saying to those assembled, "I have played 
the sluggard, my lords and gentlemen, this morning." 
Turning to Morton, the bishop of Ely, he said, 
merrily, "My lord bishop, you have good straw- 
berries in your garden, at Holborn ; I pray you let us 
have a mess of them." " Gladly, my lord," replied the 
bishop ; " would to God I had some better thing to plea- 
sure you ; "J and, forthwith, he despatched his servant, 
for a mess of the strawberries, to Ely House. Then the 

* This was false, though it is cur- f Mirrour for Magistrates ; Hall, 
rent in history ; they survived Hast- J Sir T. More ; Hall ; Speed, be- 

ings many days. Sharon Turner. sides Shakespeare. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 149 

Protector, seeing the lords engaged in business, prayed 
them to excuse him for a little time, and left the council 
room. It was nearly eleven before he returned. A 
strange change had taken place in his manner and 
countenance. He re-entered the council chamber frown- 
ing, knitting his brows, and gnawing his under-lip. 
So demeaning himself, and wonderfully sour and 
angry in aspect, he sat him down in his place at the 
board. "Much were the lords dismayed, sore did they 
marvel at his change of cheer, nor could they surmise 
what did him ail ? "* Gloucester sat silent, until the 
attention of the whole council was centred on his 
portentous countenance, and then demanded, in a tone 
which corresponded with it, 

"AVhat are they worthy to be done to, that compass 
the destruction of me — near as I am in blood to the king, 
and Protector of his realm and royal person ? " 

The lords all sat silent and astonished, wondering at 
whom the question pointed, each knowing well his own 
innocence. Lord Hastings, doubting nothing of the high 
favour he was in, took up the word, in order to restore 
the Protector's good humour. He answered, " Worthy 
of heinous punishment, whosoever they be ! " 

" Yonder sorceress, my brother's wife, and others with 
her, be they! " snarled my Lord Protector. 

Many nobles present, who wished her well, for their 
young monarch's sake, shrank back aghast when they 
heard the queen- mother thus hostilely alluded to. 
But Hastings, whom it was notorious she hated and 
dreaded more than any one in the kingdom, and who had 
acted all along most inimically to her, kept up the myste- 
rious conversation, when Gloucester thus proceeded to open 
his grievances. " Ye shall all see how that sorceress, 
Elizabeth TToodville, and that other witch, her confede- 
rate, Shore's wife, have by their witchcraft wasted my 
body." And, therewith, he plucked up his doublet sleeve 

* Ibid ; Speed. 



150 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

to the elbow, and shewed his left arm which was withered 
small and wearish; but every one knew that it always 
was so. Hastings, who would have listened with all the 
malicious satisfaction of a political opponent, to any 
calumny, however improbable, against the unfortunate 
queen, was startled at hearing the name of his own 
mistress, Jane Shore,* thus linked with the accusation. 
" Certes," stammered he in reply, " they be worthy of 
heinous punishment, if so they have done ! " 

"If! " re-echoed the Protector, "batest thou me with 
<ifs'? I tell thee they have done so ! " Then raising his 
voice to a shriller tone, he added, f " What, if by thine 
own practices, William, I be brought to destruction. And 
that I will make good on thy body-— traitor ! " 

He struck his hand violently on the oaken council-board 
before him. At that sound, as if it were a preconcerted 
signal, the cry of "Traitor " was re-echoed in a shout of 
many voices on the White Tower staircase .% The council- 
chamber door was burst open, and the room suddenly 
filled, fuller than it could well hold, with armed warriors, 
led by sir Thomas Howard. § 

* At the commands of Gloucester, marquis of Dorset, then in sanctuary 

sir Thomas Howard invaded Jane with the queen his mother. Shore, 

Shore's house, after the murder of the goldsmith, her citizen husband, 

Hastings, seized all her goods, to died about the same time, and Lyman, 

the value of three thousand marks, the usurper's solicitor-general, was 

and dragged her before the Star on the eve of marriage with Jane, 

chamber, where the Protector charged but a thundering letter from Richard 

her with decaying his body by witch- III. and Star chamber, forbade the 

craft, and conspiring with Hastings lawyer to think of such a match. 

to assassinate him. Assuredly a very ( White Kennetfs Complete History.') 

superfluous trouble, if she could effect Whensoever Jane was busy it was to 

the first. The poor woman was. sent gain partisans for the house of York. 

to one of the Tower prisons, under , ^ , , ~ ., . ,," 

, . , A , ,. ■ a -. • j ■ t Polydore Vergil. % More, 

charge of witchcraft. After doing 

penance in a white sheet with a § This fact leads to the supposition 
lighted wax taper in her hand, that lord Howard, his father, had been 
before the cross, near her hus- re-invested with the supreme com- 
band's door, a goldsmith's ibhop mand of the Tower as lord constable. 
in the city, Richard's Star chamber Brakenbury had been made lieu- 
charged her with fascinating the tenant, a very different office. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 151 

In the crowding and confusion that ensued, one of the 
intruding men at arms aimed a murderous blow at the 
head of lord Stanley, who expecting mischief from his 
dream, was not altogether unprepared. He shrunk 
under the stout oaken council table, which received 
the fury of the blow, yet he was wounded. His head 
bled profusely, but he was not slain. Every one 
who had attended the privy council, that could get 
out, rushed into the adjacent apartments,* and they 
could have been no other than the royal chambers, and 
the king's chapel. 

The Protector turned to the astonished Hastings, say 
ing, " Traitor, I arrest thee." " What me, my lord ? " ex- 
claimed Hastings in the full confidence of favour. " Yea, 
thee, traitor I" replied Gloucester. " By St. Paul, I will not 
dine till I see thy head off ! " It was in vain that Hastings 
demanded " Why ? " The men-at-arms, in whose custody 
Gloucester left him, only advised him to make short 
shrift, as my Lord Protector was impatient for his dinner. 
However long the preparation for death might be requi- 
site for a partisan- chief, who had fought through all the 
battles of the victorious White Eose, Hastings had no 
choice. He took a priest, the first that came to hand, 
and when his confession was done, he was hurried forth 
to the green, before the church at the Tower of St. Peter's. 
Opposite to it, lying on the green, was a felled tree, on the 
trunk of which he was made to bow down his head. 
He was decapitated at one blow, and before night his 
body was sent off to Windsor Castle, where it was 
buried at the feet of his beloved master, Edward IV. 
Probably this was his last request to the priest of the 
Tower — and the Lord Protector was very courteous in 
having his victims' wishes of that kind duly observed, f 

* Speed ; Holinshed. the superstition of the period, for the 

f Sir Harris Nicolas* Excerpta. repose of his soul, having ordered 

Hastings, in his will, made a few " that a thousand priests should say 

months previously to his tragic death , and sing a thousand placehos and 

had provided largely, according to diriges, and a thousand masses, for his 



152 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

And where was the young king, during this hasty 
tragedy ? It is certain he might have witnessed it from 
his private chapel, or from its staircase, or from his walk on 
the leads of the White Tower, or from either of the small 
mirador towers, which are at each corner. When correct 
dates are collated with facts, it will be found that the king 
was not that day in the Tower. He had been previously 
taken by his uncle to Ely House, to be out of the way, 
while the preconcerted drama was played in the Tower 
council room. For he is mentioned as there soon after, 
waiting to receive his brother Richard, duke of York. 
Strenuous efforts were then making at Westminster 
Abbey, for inducing the queen-mother to surrender her 
youngest son, under the pretence of walking at the 
coronation. 

The bishop of Ely was detained at the Tower, among 
the numerous prisoners captured that day, for the Tower 
prisons were filled with the unfortunate members of 
that notable privy council, among whom may be reckoned 
the wounded lord Stanley.* 

Richard excused the murder of Hastings by publishing 
a proclamation two hours afterwards, setting forth that 
Hastings had conspired with others to have slain him and 
Buckingham that morning while sitting in council, and 
then to have taken upon themselves to rule the king and 
realm at their pleasure. But the document, it was ob- 
served, was so fairly written that it must have been 
previously prepared, f 

Sir Thomas Howard, heir to the dukedom of Norfolk, 
had, with his men-at-arms, been exceedingly busy in the 
execution of Hastings. Certainly, he and his father had 

soul, each priest to receive sixpence was finally quit with like manner of 

for his reward." Truly, he expected death. Would God that such kind 

them to do a great deal of hard work of examples might once be a learn- 

for a very little money. He, ob- ing for them who think it lawful to 

serves Polydore Vergil impressively, do whatsoever liketh them. ,, 

" was one of the smiters of prince * More ; Hall ; Holinshed. 

Edward, King Henry VI. 's son, who f Sir T. More. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 153 

been ungratefully wronged by Edward IV., and the 
queen's party, although it was not chivalric to wreak his 
vengeance on the young princes ; yet he knew full well 
there was small chance of the Norfolk dukedom going to 
its legal owners, while Edward V. or his brother reigned 
in prosperity. 

Another privy council — and this time formed of Glou- 
cester's partisans — was summoned next day or the day 
afterwards, to meet in the Star chamber in the immediate 
vicinity of the queen's retreat. Like a scene in some grand 
tragedy, Westminster Hall was the neutral ground where 
the negotiators passed to and fro with messages from the 
Jerusalem chamber to the Star chamber, in which the con- 
troversy was warm as to whether the heir-presumptive 
should not be dragged out by main force from the arms 
of the widow -queen, his desolate mother.* Cardinal 
Bourchier wished to avoid such an outrage on the 
church privileges, and he and lord Howard, sir Thomas 
Howard, and various other councillors, went into the 
Jerusalem chamber and argued with the queen. The 
controversy lasted more than two days. Among other 
reasons, it was urged on the queen that Edward V. 
needed his brother as a playfellow. She replied, 
" Troweth the Protector (ah ! pray God that he prove a 
protector) that the king doth need a play-fellow ? Can 
none be found to play with the king but only his brother, 
who hath no wish to play because of sickness ? As though 
princes, young as they be, could not play without their 
peers ; or children could not play but with their kindred, 
with whom, for the most part, they agree worse than with 
strangers. "f Sending for her son Richard, duke of York, 
she took him by the hand, saying, " Lo, here is this gentle- 
man, whom I doubt not would be safely kept by me, were I 
permitted. The desire of a crown knoweth no kindred. 
Brothers have been brothers' bane, therefore may nephews 
be sure of the uncle ? Each of the children are safe while 

* Sir T. More. f Polydore Vergil. 



154 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

they be asunder. Notwithstanding, I here deliver him, 
and his brother the king's life with him, and of ye I shall 
require them before God and man. Faithful ye be, I wot 
well, and power ye have if ye list to keep both safe ! 
But if ye think I fear too much, beware that ye fear not 
too little." And therewithal she continued to the child, 
" Farewell, mine own sweet son ! God send you good 
keeping ! Let me kiss you once more ere you go, for 
God knoweth when we shall ever kiss again ! " And 
therewith she kissed and blessed him, then turned her 
back and wept, leaving the innocent child weeping as fast 
as herself.* 

Cardinal Bourchier and lord Howard led away the 
hapless boy from his woeful mother f into Westminster 
Hall, in the midst of which waited and watched 
the duke of Buckingham. The' Lord Protector was 
planted at the Star chamber door, J expecting his prey. 
That remarkable historical room opened into West- 
minster Hall, as expressly noted by a contemporary. 
Gloucester received his little kinsman with many loving 
words, and tender embraces. " Now welcome, my lord/' 
he exclaimed, "with all my heart." The poor little 
victim was taken by the false Protector to Edward V., 
who was expecting him, at Ely House, Holborn. But, 
according to contemporary authorities^ he was lodged 
in the Tower the same night, in order to be a comfort to 

* Sir T. More. He speaks of her f Sir T. More. 

eloquence. No wonder. His father, + simon Stmworth , s letter , dated 

who .was then sitting m Westminster Monda June 23rd U83 . Sir H . 

Hall, must have been eye witness, it *; 

. .. /i ., . /» i JNicoias JiiXcerpta. 

not ear witness of this scene ot real r 

life, which, though omitted by Shakes- § Written June 2 1st, 1483. The 
peare, could scarcely have been im- testimony of this important witness 
proved even by his genius. At the is so little known that we here quote 
same time the queen surrendered his brief notice of what he saw— 
the great seal of her late husband, "On Monday last, June 16th, was 
left with her by the archbishop of great press of armed men at West- 
York, according to sir Thomas More, minster, when was the delivery of the 
and a lord chancellor ought to be good duke of York to my lord cardinal, 
authority concerning a great seal. my lord chancellor, and many other, ' 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 155 

the king. It is probable, then, that the procession called 
at Ely House for the young king, for it is certain they 
were in the Tower five days afterwards. 

On the evening of the memorable June 16, proclama- 
tion was made that Edward V.'s coronation was put off* 
— it might have added for ever. 

Wheresoever the royal children first met, it is certain 
that they were almost, if not complete, strangers to each 
other. Little York was no playfellow or companion for 
his highly educated brother ; and, indeed, if the only 
authority that mentions them in this part of their history 
speaks true, he must have been a considerable plague to 
him. The poor child was ill, and had always been much 
spoiled by his mother. He distracted the young king with 
his demands for her. There was full four years difference 
between their ages. Yet all traditions, whether dramatic 
or metrical, join in affirming that the hapless child was 
treated with tenderness by Edward V., who is represented 
by lord Sackvillef as speaking thus : — 

" Now little York, in vain lamenting, wept 
That from our mother's presence he was kept ; 
Oft, woeful child, thus hast thou questioned me — 
* Where is my mother ? ' and when 1 for woe 
Have turned my back, and could not answer thee, 
With tears again thou wouldest ask to know ! 
Saying, ' I would unto my mother go ! 
But woe, alas ! what comfort could I give thee ? 
When of all means, our uncle did deprive me." 

The signs of the times spoke in a peculiar language 
to the young king, who, with his precocity of intellect, 
could not fail to understand it correctly. The natural 

lords' temporal. The duke of York Tower, where he is. Blessed be 

was met by the duke of Buckingham mercy ! " Continuator of Croyland 

in the midst of Westminster Hall. likewise mentions the armed bands 

The duke of Gloucester received him and the lodgment in the Tower the 

at the Star chamber door with many same night. 

loving words. And so departed with * Speed ; Hall. 

him and my lord cardinal to the f Mirrour for Magistrates. 



156 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

result of the arrests and imprisonments of most of those 
who were authorised to do him service at his coronation, 
was this, that such panic seized those remaining about 
him, that every day some attendant or other absconded 
from his duty, until the king and his brother, though 
still in the royal apartments of the White Tower, were 
left almost alone.* While the misfortunes of Edward Y. 
were approaching this climax, his protector was playing 
out the rest of his game on the arena of London city. 

Richard of Gloucester had no hereditary claims ; he 
was the youngest branch of the stem of York. Bucking- 
ham, however, resolved that what was needed in right 
should be made up by popular election. He busied 
himself among the citizens, whom he hoped, by the sure 
means of calumny, he could induce to reject the young 
king, and raise Eichard by public outcry to the throne. 

The London citizens were much led by popular 
preachers. The favourite of that day was an afternoon 
lecturer at St. Paul's Cross, Dr. Shaw, brother to the 
reigning lord mayor, sir Edmund Shaw, who was a great 
partisan of the Gloucester revolution. Dr. Shaw had 
been confessor to Edward IY., he was newly appointed to 
the care of the Protector's conscience,! and truly it may'' 
be said that neither of Dr. Shaw's preferments were 
sinecures. To this political preacher was confided the task 
of publicly impugning the title of the young monarch, 
Edward Y., in his open air pulpit. It is well known that 
Dr. Shaw took for his text a proverb from the Yulgate, 
as usual in Latin, which he explained in English, to his 
audience, as meaning " Bastard slips take no deep root." 
He then proceeded to attack the legitimacy of the children 
of Edward IY., reminding his hearers of the late king's 
marriage (in childhood), with lady Eleanor Butler, J which 

* Sir Thomas More. 

f Thomas Heywood, City Remem- J In the curious Friar's Genealogy, 

brancer, who wrote within memory it names him as married at six or 
of man. seven years old. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 157 

had not even then been dissolved. Likewise, his broken 
troth-plight with lady Elizabeth Lacy, before he wedded 
Elizabeth AVoodville. Like an advocate at the bar, the 
earnest confessor thought he could not do too much for 
his client. Whether out of spite to her person, or 
ignorance of the secret alliance between Richard of 
Gloucester and his duchess-mother, the popular preacher 
proceeded to attack the legitimacy of Edward IV., and 
the duke of Clarence. The late king, he declared, was 
always called in his own family the son of an archer ; 
Clarence was no better ; Eichard of Gloucester was the 
only son of the three that resembled the late duke of 
York, for he was little in stature, with a short face. No 
great personal compliment to that princely warrior. The 
citizens, however they might listen eagerly to this mass 
of court scandal (which was not much wickeder than 
most other political sermons), were indignant at the attack 
on their young sovereign's title, and manifested their dis- 
pleasure in such terms, that Dr. Shaw took refuge in his 
convent of St. Bartholomew,* from whence he never 
again shewed his face, for he was withal bitterly re- 
proached by his own party, for his attack on the honour 
of Cicely, duchess of York. The vexation of his blunder 
and failure affected his health ; he became hypochon- 
driacal, imagining that the spectre of his learned tutor, 
father Anselm, of St. Bartholomew, always at meals 
stood by his side, holding a lighted torch, and forbidding 
him to eat. Thus Dr. Shaw, in a very short time, starved 
him self to death. f 

The tissue of mistakes and malice that Dr. Shaw pro- 
nounced as a sermon, at St. Paul's Cross, proved after all 
Richard's stepping stone to the throne. Worldly persons, 
both in court and city, now could tell what this unpro- 
tecting Protector would be at. For this uncle, this 
defender, as his hapless victim had to term him under 

* Heywood. Shaw had been appointed confessor to 

t Hall; Hey wood declares Dr. Richard. 



158 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

autograph, had kept slyly observant, with much humility, 
in the back ground, leaving Buckingham to do all the 
dirty work of impugning the title of the young kin^ 
and superseding him. 

Very dirty work it was, for, after all Buckingham's lon^ 
speeches at Crosby House and Guildhall, recommending 
unanimity in lifting Richard to the throne, by the farce 
of free election; the London citizens were slow and 
sullen.* Their lord mayor, sir Edmund Shaw, Gloucester's 
great partisan, however, pronounced them quiescent, and 
their election not only free, but without minority. Of 
course, it was free ; not a spur jingled on the pavement ; 
neither sword nor armour clanked on the causeways. 
Yet the Londoners well knew there was an army, not 
far off, composed of the late ferocious invaders of Scotland. 
These bands, recently commanded by Gloucester, it was 
commonly current, had turned their faces southward, 
ready to perform martial law, and seize and sack if the 
city was malcontent. 

Sir Eichard Eatcliffe was one of the leaders of the 
northern army, a vice- constable of England, on commission 
for executing persons at the dictation of any dictator 
strong enough to command his services. Thus were the 
murders done at Pontefract, on the commencement 
of his southern march, June the 23rd or 24th, f without 
judge or jury, or even accusation. Lord Sackville has 
given the scene in his fine metrical chronicle : J lord Rivers 
is supposed to speak — 

'''"We closely were conveyed 
From jail to jail, northward, we knew not whither : 
After awhile we had asunder staid, 
"We met at fatal Pontefract together. 
My nephew, Eichard, §. would not be content 
To leave his life, because he wist not why. 

* Sir T. More, Hall, Holinshed J Mirrour for Magistrates. 

f Sharon Turner ; sir Harris 
Nicolas' Excerpta ; lord Rivers' will § Lord Richard Gray, half brother 

is dated 23rd Juue, 1483. to Edward Y. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 159 

Good gentlemen, he never harm had meant, 
Therefore, he asked, ' Wherefore he should die ? ' 
The priest, his ghostly father did reply, 
With streaming tears, ' I know one woeful cause, 
This realm hath neither righteous lord nor laws.' 
Sir Thomas Yaughan chafing, cried still, 

1 This tyrant Gloucester is the graceless G 

That will his brother's children beastly kill.' " 

The faithful chamberlain here mentions one of the 
mysterious sayings that had agitated the interior of the 
English court for more than half that century. It is 
familiar to all readers of Shakespeare in his Richard III. 
But it was a prophecy that had disturbed the peace of 
two branches of the Plantagenets. It had first been 
promulgated by Henry V., who, next to Edward IV., was 
the greatest magic seeker that ever sat on the English 
throne. Whosoever had thrown this ball of discord into 
the 15th century had endowed it with ambiguity worthy 
of the ancient oracles. No one could agree whether the 
guilty initial Gr., brother to one king and uncle to another, 
meant to indicate name or title. Humphrey, duke of 
Gloucester, had in his time suffered much inconvenience 
from the saying, during the minor reign of his nephew, 
Henry VI. Yet as duke Humphrey was not the killing, but 
the killed, Edward IV., without any great exercise of logic 
in his deductions, came to the conclusion that G — indi- 
cated somebody else. Edward IV. deeply pondered on 
the case, in a -book of "reason," as the literature of this 
most unreasonable study was then called. He was once 
standing in an oriel window at Westminster Palace, in- 
tent on his magical calculations ; his little son Edward 
was playing near with his sisters. Suddenly the king 
came to some conclusion, for he lifted his daughter Eliza- 
beth on the dais, and showing her to his courtiers, said, 
" It will not be my boy Edward, but this fair and gracious 
girl, that will wear the crown of England."* Yet he 

* Song of the lady Bessey. 



160 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

was at most times very solicitous for the prosperous 
succession of his sons, and some magician at his court, 
perhaps Hogan, revived the prophecy that they would 
be destroyed by an uncle whose name began with Gr. 
Edward IV.'s health broke up, and he knew his son would 
have a long minority. Both his brothers were afflicted 
with this alarming initial. The christian name of George 
of Clarence began with it, and the title of Gloucester. 
George had played an inimical and most ungrateful part 
against his royal brother. Gloucester was a title which 
Edward IV. himself had given to his younger brother 
Richard, who had always proved most loyal to him. 
Therefore, Edward IV.'s vengeance fell upon George, who 
was, as he truly pleaded, innocent of the doings of his 
sponsors. But the queen, Rivers, and all her family, had 
a more reasonable hatred to Clarence, for the homicide 
committed by his partisans on their father, the first earl 
of Rivers. Such was the influence that a little lame 
prediction exercised on political history, 1483. 

The avant couriers of the northern army brought to 
the Star chamber, where sat the king- elect, Richard of 
Gloucester, in council, the news of its approach. Doubt- 
less, the important tidings of the executions at Ponte- 
fract, by sir Richard Ratcliffe, formed part of the tidings. 
Before noon, Richard crossed Westminster Hall, and took 
his seat, "meekly," on the King's Bench, from whence he 
made his first royal speech, promising the lawyers halcyon 
days under his ensuing reign* Hogan, the conjuror, had 
crept out of Sanctuary to see what was going on in the 
hall ; he was discovered and seized upon. Although 
Richard was his great enemy, he shook hands with him 
and: spoke to him in a friendly manner. t Possibly 

* Sir T. More. His father the Hogan was probably one of the queen's 

judge was there. suite in sanctuary ; after all, perhaps, 

fHall. Sir T. More calls him a spy of Richard's — his disrespecta- 
Hog, another Fag. Sharon Turner ble profession, and this piece of act- 
gives his right name and profession. ing looks like it. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 1G1 

to secure a good prediction for his reign. From 
Westminster Hall Richard walked with great humility 
in his aspect to Westminster Abbey, bowing low to 
every one he met. To be sure, he had not far to 
go. The abbot met him with St. Edward's sceptre. 
Richard offered at the altar and held the sceptre while 
the choir sung the Te Deum. It was chanted very 
faintly. The mother of Edward V., then guest in the 
'abbot's apartments adjacent, was only too likely to be 
witness of the whole proceeding. The same afternoon the 
usurper was formally proclaimed at Baynard's Castle, (his 
mother's residence,) as Richard III., king of England and 
France, and lord of Ireland. Edward V. must have heard, 
in the demesne of the Tower, his uncle thus proclaimed, 
which announced to him his own deposition. 

The new king's army from the north, amounting to 
nine thousand foot soldiers, poured into London, through 
Bishopsgate, June 27th, escorting Richard III.'s queen 
and only son, Edward of Gloucester, a boy of eight or 
nine years of age, rival to the unfortunate Edward V. 
The citizens were extremely disgusted with these northern 
bands. They declared them to be the most ill-behaved, 
ill-looking, and what is still more displeasing to the 
English, the most ill-dressed set of vagabonds they ever 
saw. 

Every preparation, excepting some cookery, was ready 
for the coronation, only the name and person of the prin- 
cipal performer on the grand scene was changed, and 
there were the popular additions of a queen and prince of 
Wales. The coronation robes, long and ample as they 
were, served for the uncle as well as the deposed nephew. 
A shallow historical doubter,* who, out of sheer con- 
tradiction, advocates the character of Richard III. on 
the strength of a tailor's bill, has ventured to assert 
that young Edward V. was so kindly treated by his 
uncle, that he actually walked at his coronation. 

* Walpole in his "Historic Doubts/ ' 
11 



162 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

In the Wardrobe accounts for 1483, is an entry to the 
following effect : — 

" Lobd Edward, son to the late King Edward IV., for his 
Apparel and Array. 

u A short gown of crimson cloth of gold lined with black velvet, 
a long gown of crimson cloth of gold lined with green damask, a 
donblet and stomacher of black satin, a bonnet of purple velvet, nine 
horse harnesses and nine saddle housings of blue velvet, and magni- 
ficent apparel for his henchmen and pages." 

Nothing is proved by the above account, excepting that 
certain clothes had been made for Edward of York some- 
time in the spring of 1483. Though Edward V.'s uncle 
was wicked enough to kill him and seize his kingdom, he 
was not so ungentlemanlike as to wrong the tailor who 
worked for him of his bill, but passed it with the usual 
accounts, especially as the court tailor was not imprudent 
enough to give offence by ascribing royalty to his deposed 
employer. Richard of Gloucester did not displace the 
officers of the Wardrobe at his accession. Piers Curteys, 
master of the Wardrobe to Edward IV. and Edward V., 
still dominated over the royal robes, cassocks, and other 
garmenture of English royalty, lineal or elective, and the 
yeomen of the Wardrobe performed their stitchery under 
his jurisdiction and inspection. The very predominance of 
black among these garments proves that they were not 
for coronation wear by a king or any one else. The kings 
of England wore mourning very sparingly, and only in 
household dress. We have shown that at Edward V.'s 
London entry he was robed in blue velvet,* when his 
household officers and relatives were in the depth of their 
mourning for his royal sire. No one dared appear in a 
robe lined with black velvet, a black satin doublet, and 
stomacher at Eichard III/s coronation. As for the Ward- 
robe accounts, Piers Curteys has made a charge for alter- 

* The ancient colour of the Garter, It was changed at the revolution 
blue, was the beautiful azure, the of 1688 to the present colour, 
colour of the royal robes of France. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 163 

ing the garments provided for the young king's little 
pages and henchmen into larger ones for Richard IIL's 
full grown attendants.* 

The usurper not only paid this bill for clothes 
supplied to his deposed nephew, but he liquidated the cost 
incurred for game provided by the royal purveyor and 
intended to be eaten at Edward's coronation; so very 
near was that ceremony brought on. The base poulterer 
gave it in as incurred by " Edward, bastard son of the 
late king."f 

The accession of Richard III. is reckoned from June 
26th. From Westminster Palace, July 4th, Richard III. 
embarked on the Thames at the palace stairs, often called 
" St. Edward's bridge," with his wife and son, in grand 
water procession to the Tower. The day after, he created 
his son prince of Wales, and dubbed seventeen knights of 
the Bath. John, lord Howard, was created, or rather 
received as his right, the dukedom of Norfolk ; his son, 
Thomas Howard, was entitled earl of Surrey. J The same 
afternoon, of July 5th, Richard made his solemn pro- 
cession through the city to Westminster. Buckingham 
declared himself sick, and unable to join it. ■ The story 
went that he had already fallen out with the new-elected 
king. 

A politic move, worthy of notice, was played by 
Richard III. Many of those who had to perform feudal 
service at his nephew's coronation, had been caught and 
caged in the circling fortresses of the Tower, on the fatal 
council day, June 13th. Every one whom he thought 
loved their lives and lands better than Edward V. were 

* Still extant in the Harleian col- Thomas Carter, wax chandler, John 

lection, British Museum. MS. No. Short, butcher, and other of London 

433, fol. 57, B., is an entry of a aforesaid, the sum of £200 for vitail, 

writ of privy seal, directed to John spended in the house of Edward V. 

Hayes, commanding him "to content pretending to be king" 

John Lomplorn of London, grocer ; f Dr. Milles ; Archseologia. 

J Sir T. More. » 



164 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

brought with their insignia of service to his own coronation 
procession, when it was forming at Westminster Hall, and 
told to take their proper places. So the ceremony went on, 
and the bewildered prisoners, who had been kept in igno- 
rance, performed their devoirs by surprise, and took their 
oaths without protesting against the change of kings.* 
Richard III. gained by previous treaty, the lord steward 
Stanley, though scarcely healed from the bitter blow 
luckily shared by the old oak council-table in the Tower. 
Likewise Edward V/s master of the horse, lord Lyle.f 
The usurper still kept Morton, bishop of Ely, in re- 
straint ; but he gave him into keeping of his confederate, 
Buckingham, in whose conduct a great change was per- 
ceptible, almost from the hour he became the bishop's 
custodian. 

Buckingham took his place at Richard's III/s coronation, 
but it was observed he turned away his face when the 
crown was set on the head of his partner in iniquity. 
The king and he had already quarrelled, Buckingham 
having demanded the dukedom of Lancaster as well 
as the earldom of Hereford. Richard had already paid 
him an immense sum from Edward IV/s ill-gotten 
hoards, for his aid, with which cash Buckingham had 
decked his person in the richest robe at the ceremony, 
worked all over with golden wheels, and his retainers with 
" Stafford knot " badges, swarmed in the abbey likewise, 
very gaily attired. J 

• So closed the reign of Edward of the Sanctuary. 
" Short is the step," observed one of his unfortunate 
successors, " between the deposition of a monarch and 
his grave." Edward V., the child of early promise, the 
pupil and relative of one of our early authors and patrons 
of literature, had not listened in vain to the "dictes," and 
" faites," the readings with which his temperate dinners 

* Sir T. More dates the liberation f Ibid. Brother to Queen Eliza- 

of lord Stanley from June 28, the day beth Woodville's first husband, 
the northern army entered London. J Hall ; sir T. More. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 165 

had been seasoned at Ludlow. The royal boy anticipated 
the above historical aphorism. For he pathetically ob- 
served, in reply to the announcement of the coronation of 
Richard III., "My uncle might take my crown if he 
would leave us our lives. "* 

The autograph of Edward V., from one of his privy 
seal documents, executed at the Tower, countersigned 
by his false protector, we present beneath. It is en- 
graved from the specimen exhibited to the public among 
the autographs of our sovereigns, with those called 
choice MSS., under glass frames in the British Museum. 

* Sir T. More ; Hall. 








See page 142. 



EDWAED THE FIFTH. 



CHAPTER III. 

Edward V.'s place of detention after deposition — Popular tradition confirmed 
by recent discovery — Imprisonment in the Wakefield Tower — Depression 
of the young king — Richard III. on progress at "Warwick — Sends from 
thence John Greene to order his nephews' murder— Sir R. Brakenbury's 
refusal— Richard's interview in the pallet chamber at Warwick Castle with 
his master-of-horse, sir J. Tyrell — Richard gives Tyrell command of the 
Tower — Tyrell leaves Warwick Castle with his assistants, Forest and 
Dighton— Scene from Heywood, of Edward's life in the Tower — Deaths of 
Edward V. and young duke of York — Burial— Richard III. informed 
of the murders — His satisfaction — Objects to unhallowed burial — Corpses 
raised — Delivered to priest of the Tower — He inters them — Dies day 
after — Memory of place of interment lost— Queen-mother informed of 
their deaths — Her agonies and maledictions — Death of Richard III.'s only 
son — Enormous grants to sir J. Tyrell, Forest, etc. — Grief of Elizabeth of 
York for deaths of her brothers— Her reported speech after the fall of 
her uncle at Bos worth — Her kindness to Edward V.'s nurse — Pictorial 
relics of Edward V. — Description of his portrait — Accidental discovery 
of the remains of the murdered princes — Their burial by Charles II.' s 
commands in Westminster Abbey — Monument and inscription — Present 
state of the royal apartments in the Tower — Wakefield Tower — (Tail- 
piece). 

The question has often been eagerly asked by the readers 
of history, yet not quite so readily answered, " Where 
were the disinherited sons of Edward IV. while the revo- 
lution that raised their uncle to the throne was in course 
of accomplishment? Where were they when Richard 
III. came in state to the Tower of London, creating 
his son prince of Wales, his friend duke of Norfolk, and 
dubbing knights of the Bath ? " 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 167 

The White palatial tower does not cover a very exten- 
sive ground plot, nor does it present in its upper floors 
wide ranges of chambers. The Red King had built his 
Norman donjon more as a bridle to his turbulent Lon- 
doners, when incensed at the imposition of taxes for 
foreign military sovereigns, than as a pleasure palace to 
disport himself withal. The king's lodging rooms at the 
Tower of London must have been small indeed for such 
an influx of court officials as Richard III. had about 
him, when the above high ceremonials were performed. 
It is utterly impossible to suppose that Richard shared 
the alcoves that mark the whereabouts of his Norman 
predecessor's bedchamber, with such conscience-stirring 
partners. Dangerous, too, would have been the presence 
of the deposed young monarch with some of his late 
lieges, who, so far from participating in his deposition, 
had only just been let out of the durance incurred through 
their love for him. That Edward Y. and little York were 
cleared out of the royal lodging suite at the Tower to 
make room for the state sojourn of their false uncle, 
previous to his city procession towards Westminster, no 
one can doubt ; but who has ever answered the natural 
query — where were they conveyed ? * 

* That they were not slain before by partiality to Henry VII., are 

the coronation of their uncle, Eichard surely not aware of the fact how 

III. , a most efficient witness testifies. highly he offended that prince by 

Sir Thomas More wrote his chronicle opposing the demand of a subsidy 

Lives of Edward V. and Eichard III. and three-fifteenths for the marriage 

only twenty-five years after the of his eldest daughter to the king of 

events. He was in existence when Scotland, by pronouncing it to be 

they happened. His father, sir John * ' exorbitant/' and with such strength 

More, was a leading man in the realm of reasoning that it was negatived, 

at the very period, one of the judges More was little more than one and 

of the court of King's Bench, and he twenty years old when he gave this 

himself gives us the depositions of instance — almost the first on record — 

those who did the homicides. The of independent conduct in parlia- 

paradoxical authors who have at- ment, in opposition to the sovereign, 

tempted to impugn the historical When Mr. Tyler, one of the king's 

testimony of sir Thomas More, under privy council, hastened to report to 

the absurd idea that it was biassed the sovereign " that all his purpose 



168 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



All chroniclers mention the fact that Edward "V. and 
his brother were together for some time at Ely House ; 
none agree as to time. But the irrefragable dates on state 
documents, concealed from them but open to us, prove that 
the hapless boys could not have met, at the very earliest, 
until June 16th. Then sir Thomas More and Hall affirm 
that Edward V; was at Ely House/awaiting his brother. 
Yet the master of it, Morton, bishop of Ely, had been 
arrested June 13th (when Hastings was executed), and 
was incarcerated in one of the Tower prisons. His house, 
therefore, was vacant, and at the usurper's disposal. 

Let us consider how singularly well Ely House, Holborn, 
was adapted as a place of detention for the hapless boys 
during the coronation of their uncle. It was a strong 
castellated palace outside the western London wall, situ- 
ated on the present site of Ely Place, Hatton Garden. It 
was lonely and isolated, embosomed in rich groves and 
gardens, which sloped down the eastern side of Holborn 
Hill to the river Flete. And that river was navigable 
for ships as well as boats, up to Holborn Bars.* Embark- 
ation could take place in boats or barges, at the bishop's 
own garden gate, on the river Flete, and a few strokes of 
the oar sent passengers into the silent highway of the 
broad flowing Thames, whether bound for Westminster 
Palace on the right hand, or to the ominous destination of 
Traitor's Gate, Tower of London, on the left. From close 

had been defeated by a beardless England altogether, so much bad bis 

boy," Henry was so exasperated that opposition to the king's wishes marred 

he ordered sir John More, the un~ his fortunes. How, then, can it be 

offending father of the conscientious pretended that a man who gave so 

young burgess, to be arrested and many noble evidences of his honesty, 

sent to the Tower, on some frivolous both in life and death, would conde- 

pretext, and kept him there till he scend to violate the sacred duties of 

was fain to purchase his liberty by an historian ? 

submitting to an illegal fine of £100. * See Knight's u London." As 

Young More receiving a hint that his late as the reign of Charles II. there 

life was in danger, retired for a are engravings, showing the stream 

while from the public arena, and of the Flete open, with ships upon 

even entertained thoughts of leaving it, and four bridges beyond. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 169 

study of the case wo como to the conclusion that the 
captive children were carefully guarded at Ely House, 
Holborn, during the pageant of their uncle's state visit 
at the Tower. And that after King Richard and his 
train left the Tower for the coronation at Westminster, 
Edward V. and little York were privately brought back, 
under shadow of night/ landed at the Water or Traitor's 
Gate, and forthwith enclosed in the adjacent Wakefield 
Tower,* a prison used both before and afterwards for 
detaining unfortunate individuals connected with the royal 
family of England. 

The Wakefield Tower and its adjacent fortifications, 
had been strengthened and improved with great cost and 
care, by Edward IV. Within its walls, he had permitted, 
if not ordered, the last Lancastrian king to be butchered. 
It was now a cage for the hopeless incarceration of his 
own heirs. Skelton, a poet of wonderful but rugged 
power, whose youth was contemporary with the last year 
of this warrior king, thus makes him exclaim : — 

1 1 1 made the Tower strong, I wist not why, 
Knew not for whom." 

These words occur in a monologue of uncommon 
grandeur, which the poet represents the fourth Edward 
as addressing to himself, when his soul, after death, was 
enlightened as to the results of his deeds in the flesh. 

The oral tradition of the people has clung with 
tenacity to this locality as the scene of the murders 
"of the young princes in the Tower." The Portcullis 
gateway, under which all visitors to the Tower of London 
are obliged to pass, is still called the Bloody Tower; 
although it is not a tower in form. Yet it is an adjunct 
to the Wakefield Tower, which is built against it, and 
which deserved and received that sanguine epithet, before 
the deaths of the hapless sons of the fourth Edward, f 

* Old Chronicle, edited by Hut- f Sir Harris Nicolas, with whom 

ton, in his " History of Bosworth we have often discussed these curious 
Field." points. 



170 EDWATtD THE FIFTH. 

In the two last centuries great perplexity existed in 
regard to this tradition, because the interior of the Port- 
cullis gateway seemed perfectly isolated from all com- 
munication with its mysterious neighbour ; and its two 
or three rooms, evidently meant for the occupation of 
some confidential officer of the captain of the royal 
guard in charge of the Portcullis, were too public and 
full of business in the feudal eras to be adapted for 
imprisonment and secret murders. Nevertheless, the 
Londoners are right enough in their tradition concerning 
this locality, for the Portcullis gateway may be considered 
as portico and part of the real prison, where the sanguine 
deeds were done. For a gothic doorway, at present 
bricked up, has been found connected with the secret 
passage communicating between the Portcullis archway 
and the cellars or dungeons of the "Wakefield Tower, and 
from thence with its sleeping-rooms.* 

" For a little time," says a near contemporary, " Ed- 
ward V. and his brother were well treated. At last, every 
one of the few persons that waited on them went away. 
Then they were closely imprisoned. A fellow, one called 
Black Will — named (or perhaps surnamed) Slaughter, was 
alone appointed to attend them.f Four others guarded 

* Thanks are due to the courtesy wooden excrescences like pigeon- 

of colonel Whimper, who has most houses. The wooden structures were 

kindly used his authority for the elu- picturesque on paper, but sordid and 

cidation of this historical mystery, squalid in fact, 
as the gothic door was shewn by him 

to our artist, bricked up in the cellar f Hall. This man was evidently 

or dungeon of the Wakefield Tower, the regular warder of the Portcullis 

which gave secret admission from the Tower, for we shall soon see that he 

Portcullis gateway, to the prison showed the secret way, now bricked 

chambers within its neighbouring up, which led from the gateway into 

fortress. The tailpiece at the end of the prison sleeping rooms of the 

this Life presents the Portcullis gate- Wakefield Tower. His sobriquet 

way, and Wakefield Tower, according of Slaughter shows that it was his 

to the recent restoration, giving the office to carry into execution all the 

reader a much better idea of the irregular death warrants with which 

death-scene of Henry VI., Edward Edward IV. charged his captain of 

V., and the little duke of York, the, guard, but he had no further 

than as lately seen with modern hand in this murder. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 171 

them, among whom was Miles Forest.* After wliich 
Edward never tied his points, or took care of himself, but 
with the young babe, his brother, lingered in thought and 
heaviness." Expressions which would lead to the supposi- 
tion that little Richard of York was several years younger 
than even the corrected datef of his birth implies, and 
such is not unlikely to be the fact ; for dates are difficult 
to ascertain in that century. We can find no trace of the 
duke of York's educational establishment, and it was an 
invariable rule, not likely to be infringed in that warlike 
age, for all English princes to be transferred to masculine 
government at seven years of age. The petting and 
cherishing of this little one by his mother, the frequent 
application of the term " babe " to him by near contem- 
poraries, leads to the idea that the little duke of York 
was nearer five than nine years of age. 

A splendid progress was commenced by King Richard 
soon after his coronation, which was shared by his queen 
and son. He staid at Gloucester some days, and here he 
gave Buckingham a final audience regarding the honours 
and rewards for which this pair of confederates had 
bargained. As to the marriage of Buckingham's daughter 
with the new prince of "Wales, that bubble had just 
burst ; for an ambassador had arrived from Isabel of 
Castille, offering Richard's boy the hand of a little princess 
of Spain, which the usurper eagerly accepted. J The 
complete success attending the machinations of Bucking- 
ham made that politician imagine that he deserved a 
great deal more, rather than a great deal less, than his 
bargain with King Richard. Nevertheless, according to 
his own imputed words,§ "I took leave of him at 

* He only took this office a few who died young, yet a mistake may 

hours on the 3rd or 4th of August, occur between the identity of the 

as he was TyrelPs squire, and rode second and third prince, 

with him from Warwickshire. J Continuator of Croyland Chro- 

f By sir Harris Nicolas, the usual nicle ; Eous of Warwick, 

date (Toone) is 1472. There was a § Sir T. More's Conference of 

third son born to Edward IV., and Buckingham with bishop Morton. 



172 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

Gloucester with a merry countenance, but despiteful 
heart." Yet there must have been some expression on 
Buckingham's merry aspect that betrayed the spite- 
fulness within. For the new king was forthwith inspired 
with a vehement desire of destroying Edward V. and 
little York immediately, lest his late ally, who had 
announced his retirement to his castle of Brecon, should 
only withdraw to plot the restoration of the young king. 
"While the hapless princes breathed the vital air, of 
course Richard felt that his dearly bought crown was 
only a vexatious incumbrance. " Therefore," says our 
chronicler, " he thought without delay to rid them, as 
though killing of his kinsmen would make him kindly 
king." * 

Instead of going to bed, Richard III., summoned John 
Greene, a confidential squire, belonging to his chamber, 
and bade him instantly depart for the Tower of London, 
and tell sir Robert Brakenbury, his new lieutenant there, 
to kill his prisoners, young Edward and Richard, forth- 
with. 

Robert Brakenbury had been one of Richard's northern 
champions, knight-banneret in the Scotch campaign with 
sir James Tyrell, Ratcliffe, and other destructives commis- 
sioned as vice-constables of England. He had been put 
into his present preferment when Dorset threw up the 
command of the grim fortress of London Tower and 
fled to his mother in sanctuary. However, Sir Robert 
Brakenbury was troubled with a conscience, a very 
awkward appendage it must be owned for any functionary 
who lived under the dictatorship of either Edward IV., 
Louis XL, or Richard III. It so happened that sir 
Robert Brakenbury was paying his devotions before 
"our Lady's altar," in the royal chapel f of the White 

* Ibid. Kindly king means king have disdained so much as he ought 

next of kindred to the crown. The to have done. 

illustrious lord chancellor here in- f It seems from the latest inquirer 

dulges in an alliterative string of into the Tower antiquities that the 

puns such as Shakespeare would not royal chapel in the White Tower 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 173 

Tower, when Jolin Grcono arrived at the Tower gate. 
Thither the royal messenger was directed. He ascended 
and delivered Richard III.'s murderous message in the 
sacred place. The Tower lieutenant answered firmly, " I 
will never put them to death, though I die therefore." 
With which reply, John Greene departed instantly to his 
employer.* 

The royal progress had proceeded to Warwick Castle 
before John Greene arrived to report his fruitless errand, 
which was as usual done at the hour of " royal coucher," 
in Richard's most private apartment. When he heard 
Brakenbury's refusal, he exclaimed angrily : " Oh ! whom 
shall a man trust ? they that I have brought up myself ; 
they that I thought would have most surely served me ; 
even these fail me, and will do nothing at my command- 
ment !"f 

Richard III. had a favourite page J of the highest rank 
then attending on his person, and who of course heard, 
and it seems well understood, the gist of these lamenta- 
tions. 

" Sir," quoth this page, " there lieth one in the pallet 
chamber without, that I dare well say will do your grace's 
pleasure. The thing were right hard that he would 
refuse."§ 

The sarcastic young noble alluded to sir James Tyrell, 
the handsomest and one of the most fearless among 
Richard's military bravos, who had recently won his spurs 

was accessible to all within the walls J More ; Hall. It is but a sur- 

of the demesne who were not pri- mise, yet we think this boy was John 

soners, for it was ascended by a stair- De la Pole, his favourite nephew, the 

case then outside the White Tower, eldest son of Elizabeth duchess of 

As the royal chambers had likewise Suffolk, whom Richard proclaimed 

access to it, and no one in Roman heir of England, after the death of 

catholic countries shuts up a place of Edward of Gloucester, prince of 

worship, here was reason good why Wales. The English viewed the 

the young king was not confined in De la Poles with little less hatred 

the White Tower. than they did Richard himself. 

* Sir T. More. § Ibid. 

f Ibid. 



174 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

as knight-banneret in the bloody Scotch campaign. He 
had been lately appointed to the high office of master of 
the horse. Absent on some secret behest of the usurper's, 
the handsome Tyrell did not figure at the recent coro- 
nation in that distinguished place, but his brother Thomas 
Tyrell acted as his deputy.* However, sir James had 
now returned to his duty, and according to the ancient 
functions of the master of the horse, f had taken up his 
lodging for the night on a pallet or sofa-bed in the ante- 
chamber to the royal sleeping room in Warwick Castle. 
It was customary to call the apartment opening into the 
bed-room, wheresoever the king might sleep, the pallet 
chamber, because often, if danger was expected, many 
pallets or mattresses were spread on which slept gentle- 
men of the bed-chamber, and even men at arms, according 
to the exigencies of the times. 

Acting promptly on the suggestion of his page, king 
Eichard left his apartment and entered the antechamber. 

* To this conclusion the learned His grandfather, sir John Tyrell, 
researches of Dr. Milles, Sharon of the ancient Norman family in 
Turner, and sir Harris Nicolas all Essex, descended from the " loved 
arrive. Hall's Chronicle declares archer of Rufus," and, as such, a cadet 
that James Tyrell was remarkahle for of one of our most ancient families, 
heauty and bravery, and withal was was treasurer to Henry VI., a great 
recklessly unprincipled, but that his officer of the crown, and of course took 
brother Thomas bore an excellent very high rank in England. Unfor- 
character. tunately, times became so bad for 
f All these honours render a little holy Henry, that he had no treasure 
contradictory various passages in to keep, and the family of this trea- 
chronicle, which represents sir James surer went down in the world, or, as 
Tyrell, at the very time he was the above, he " became decayed in state." 
master of the horse, and sleeping in One of the younger sons of the 
the king of England's antechamber, Lancasterian treasurer established 
as little higher in degree than a himself at Gipping in Suffolk. 
Spanish spadasin, hired to stab an Thomas and James Tyrell were his 
enemy by a blind wall. The Mirrour sons, and James, as we have seen, 
for Magistrates, usually minutely became an unscrupulous Yorkist 
correct, thus mentions him : — soldier of fortune on the avowed 
"Tyrell by name, a man decayed in principle, as chronicles truly tell, that 
state, nothing should impede his advance- 
Was prone to act this deed, in hopes ment to more than the original high 
of better fate." fortunes of his race. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 175 

He advanced directly to the pallet where sir James 
Tyrell and his brother Thomas were sleeping together. 
" What," cried the king merrily, " are you already a- 
bed, gentlemen P " Sir James Tyrell sprang from his 
couch, and soon made himself ready to receive the orders 
of his master. Richard took him as usual into the most 
private recess of his tiring room and opened the affair of 
the murders he required. Sir James Tyrell was willing to 
do all he ordered, but required full commission, and to do it 
according to his own plan. King Richard then wrote to 
sir Robert Brakenbury his orders to deliver the Tower, its 
keys, and all its appurtenances, for one night, into the 
hands of sir James Tyrell, that he might execute his 
royal pleasure.* Sir James Tyrell declared his intention 
of departing for London instantly, and doing the deed the 
very next night. He requested the aid of his brother, 
Tom Tyrell, and met with a refusal. f Sir James then 
selected from five followers, who were his practical 
executioners, two whom he thought particularly adapted 
for the work in hand — Miles Forest, " a fellow," according 
to the graphic words of sir Thomas More, " flesh bred in 
murder aforetime, and to him he joined John Dighton, his 
own horse keeper, a big, broad, square, strong knave."£ 

Thus provided, and thus commissioned, sir James Tyrell 
took his way from Warwick Castle, it is supposed about 
the 3rd or 4th of August. 

Before the depth of that fearful night wholly enveloped 
the Tower and its circling prison-holds, let us take the 
view of the innocent victims incarcerated therein afforded 
by a famous dramatist and historian who wrote within 
their century. Thomas Heywood's plays of Edward IV. 
and V. were so popular and well known, that Shakespeare, 
who wrote some years after him, has carefully abstained 

* Hall's Chronicle and sir T. f Ibid. The fact rather is implied 

More ; from the Confessions of sir than asserted by our chronicles, yet 
James Tyrell in the reign of Henry their meaning is plain, by the praises 
VII. they bestow on Tom Tyrell. 

} Sir Thomas More. 



176 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

I 

from drawing any scene in Richard III. that Heywood 
has depicted. 

a SCENE : A CHAMBER IN" THE TOWER. 

The two young 'princes Edward and Richard in their nightdresses. 
Richard. 

How does your grace ? 
Edward. 

Why well, good brother Richard, 

How does yourself? you told me your head ached. 
Richard. 

Indeed it does, my lord. Feel with your hands. 

How hot it is ! 
Edward. 

Indeed, you have caught cold 

With sitting yesternight to hear me read. 

I pray thee go to bed, sweet Dick : 

Poor little heart ! 
Richard. 

You'll give me leave to wait upon your grace ? 
Edward. 

Brother, I have more need to wait on you, 

Seeing that you are ill and J am not. 
Richard. 

Oh ! Lord, methinks this going to our beds 

How like it is to going to our graves ! 
Edward. 

I pray thee do not speak of graves, sweet heart. 
Richard. 

Why, my lord brother, did not our tutor teach us 

That when at night we went unto our bed 

We ever should be ready for the grave ? 
Edward. 

Yes, that is true, as every christian ought 

To be prepared to die at any hour. — 

Richard, I'm heavy. 
Richard. 

Indeed, and so am I. 
Edward. 

Then let us pray, and so lie down and sleep. 
They kneel and pray — solemn music is heard through the Tower 
chambers. 
Richard. 

How ! bleeds your grace ? 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 177 

Edward. 

Aye, two drops and no more. 
Richard. 

God bless ns both ! 
Edward. 

Brother, see here what holy David says, 

' Lord, in thee I trust, although I die ! ' 

Exeunt into bed-chamber. 

Enter sir James Tyrell, who had been listening. 
Tyrell. 

Go lay ye down, but never more to rise !"* 

According to the metrical chronicle by Queen Eliza- 
beth's kinsman Sackville, which we have often quoted, 
the murder was done in a manner peculiarly horrible to 
human nature. The children were asleep at midnight in 
profound darkness, when Miles Forest and the burly 
ruffian Dighton crept on the bed,f and, as if they had been 
two tangible nightmares, each bodily oppressed the child 
he had selected to murder. It is probable that the horse- 
tamer, strong Dighton, took the young king. Whether 
the .children ever awoke to the reality of their situation, 
or suffered more than in a fearful fit of nightmare, is 
doubtful, but who need suffer more either in body or soul ? 

While Tyrell waited during the awful minutes of the 
children's death struggle, Heywood represents him as 
uttering the following soliloquy : — 

" The very senseless stones here in the walls 
Break out in tears but to behold the fact. 
Methinks the bodies lying dead in graves 
Should rise and cry against us ! 

A noise is heard within. 
Oh, hark ! hark ! 

For mandrakes' shrieks are music to their cries. 
The very night is frighted — and the stars 
Do drop like torches to behold this deed; 
The very centre of the earth doth shake. 
-Methinks the Tower should rend down from the top 
To let the heavens frown on this murderous deed." 

* T. Heywood. . f Mirrour for Magistrates. 

12 



178 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

Our chroniclers differ very little from each other in 
their narrative of this appalling event, all following sir 
Thomas More's digest of the depositions by the actual 
assassins. Yet Hall adds somewhat, for he says, " Will 
Slaughter* opened the way to the bed of the sleeping 
children. " These are the words of this chronicler, and 
they imply either that the victims were confined in some 
secret chamber, or that their lodgings had some way of 
access only known to the warder, whose name is neither 
met with on the list of rewards in the reign of Richard or 
of punishments in that of his successor. " Then," says sir 
Thomas More, " all others being removed from the Tower, 
Miles Forest and John Dighton, about midnight, came 
into their chamber, and suddenly wrapped them up 
amongst the bed-clothes, keeping down by force the 
feather bed and pillows hard upon their mouths. "Within 
a while they smothered and stifled them, and their breaths 
failing, they gave up to God their innocent souls into the 
joys of heaven, leaving to their tormentors their bodies 
dead in bed. After which, the wretches laid them out upon 
the bed, and fetched sir James Tyrell to see them ; and 
when he was satisfied of their deaths, he caused the 
murderers to bury them at the stair-foot, metely deep in 
m the ground, under a great heap of stones." 

Shakespeare's celebrated soliloquy of Tyrell is sup- 
posed to occur when he was waiting to report the 
homicidal transaction to Richard III., which interview it 
has been shown really took place at Warwick Castle. 
The royal progress, however, is not recognised in the 
Richard III. of our great dramatist : — 

"Tyeell. 

The tyrannous and bloody act is done ; 
The most arch deed of piteous massacre, 
That ever yet this land was guilty of. 
Dighton and Forest, whom I did suborn 
To do this piece of ruthless butchery, 
* This ruffian was not examined in Tyrell and his servants. Perhaps he 
the Star Chamber inquisition with was dead. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 179 

Albeit they were fleshed villains, bloody dogs, 
Melting with tenderness and mild compassion, 
Wept like two children, in this death's sad story. 

* 0, thus,' quoth Dighton, ' lay the gentle babes — ' 
1 Thus, thus,' quoth Forest, l girdling one another 
"Within their alabaster, innocent arms : 

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, 

Which in their summer beauty kissed each other. 

A book of prayers on their pillow lay ; ' 

* Which once,' quoth Forest, i almost changed my mind 
But, oh ! the devil ' — there the villain stopped ; 
When Dighton thus told on, ' We smothered 

The most replenished sweet work of nature, 
That, from the prime creation, e'er she framed.' 
Hence both are gone ; with conscience and remorse, 
They could not speak ; and so I left them both, 
To bear these tidings to the bloody king." 

The manner of burial was the only part of the transac- 
tion that displeased the head murderer, who was still at 
"Warwick Castle when sir James Tyrell returned, and 
reported what had been done. Richard declared himself 
wonderfully contented with the deed, but ordered that the 
bodies of his nephews might be disinterred from the 
sordid hole in their prison lodging, and buried by a priest 
in consecrated ground. This was done, as the assassins 
afterwards deposed. The corpses of the murdered children 
were raised and delivered to the old priest of the Tower, 
sir Eobert Brakenbury's chaplain, who interred them in 
consecrated ground ; but where no one could tell, for he 
himself died a day or two afterwards, and the secret died 
with him. 

The murders of Edward V. and his brother were not 
generally known until the whole island was startled and 
astonished by a second coronation of Richard III., which 
took place at York the beginning of September, 1483. 
The purpose of the usurper was evidently that he might 
receive the repetition of the oaths of his baronage after 
the deaths of Edward V. and his heir-presumptive. For 
he himself had caused his nephew to be proclaimed in the 



180 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

northern metropolis, and oaths of allegiance to the young 
monarch had been taken, at least by every man exercising 
authority in the country. Just after the re-coronation,* 
the deaths of Edward V. and little York were generally 
made known. "But when," says sir T. More, "the news 
was brought to the unfortunate queen-mother, she being 
yet in sanctuary, that her two princely sons were mur- 
dered, it struck to her heart like the sharp dart of death. 
Suddenly amazed, she swooned and fell to the ground, 
and there lay in great agony, but like to a dead corpse. 
After she was revived and came to memory again, she 
sobbed, she wept, and with pitiful shrieks filled the whole 
mansion : her fair hair she tore and pulled to pieces, and, 
calling by name her sweet babes, accounted herself mad 
when she delivered her younger son out of sanctuary for 
his uncle to put him to death. After long lamentation, 
she kneeled down and cried to God for vengeance." 
Scarcely four months passed, before Richard III. lost his 
only son by " an unhappy death,f sudden and violent." 
For this boy's advancement^ the usurper had steeped his 
soul in crime. And he could feel that, with Edward V. 
and his brother, he had exterminated his own heirs, and, 
more than that, had destroyed healthy representatives of 
the name of Plantagenet ; for of that name, so adored by 
him, the imbecile son of his brother Clarence, young 
Warwick, and his own deformed person, were the sole 
survivors. 

The apartments of the abbot of Westminster, the Jeru- 
salem Chamber, its adjoining suite of rooms, the great 
hall below them, now the refectory of the Westminster 

* King John was thus re-crowned, J It is . strange that Shakespeare 

after the murder of his elder brother's has not even mentioned the son of 

son, Arthur. Richard III. The loss of him by 

f Rous' Latin Chronicle. Rous, some terrible unrevealed fate is an 

who was the priest of Warwick awful stroke of retributive justice, 

Castle, was on the spot when Tyrell often presented by biographical 

departed to murder Edward V., and history, never heeded by political 

came back with the tidings. historians. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 181 

scholars, arc at present nearly in the same state as when the 
shrieks of Queen Elizabeth Woodville rang through them. 
For they were the real locale where the agonies of 
bereaved maternity racked the soul of the unfortunate 
queen, mother of three sons murdered within six weeks, 
Edward V., Richard duke of York, and Richard Gray, 
It is a mellowed grief rather than the strong anguish, 
" sharp as the dart of death," which thus flows in 
Shakespeare's beautiful words, attributed by him to 
Elizabeth : 

" Ah, my poor princes ! ah, my tender "babes ! 
My unblown flowers, my new appearing sweets ! 
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air, 
And be not fixed in doom perpetual, 
Hover about me with your airy wings 
And hear your mother's lamentations." 

Willy Shakespeare is a mere "Will of the Wisp in 
regard to history. His readers must banish from their 
minds all his fascinations when they approach the well- 
spring of truth, if his genius wantonly chooses to trouble 
it. His most astounding misrepresentation of fact is 
the conduct of Cicely, duchess of York, who was the 
certain confidante, if not the actual inciter of her son 
Richard's usurpation. 

Among the enormous list of rewards bestowed by 
Richard III. on the subordinate agents of his crime, 
historical research has brought to light a startling one.* 
Miles Forest was, after the deaths of his victims, ma<J£ 
keeper of the wardrobe to Cicely, duchess of York, at 
Baynard's Castle. Passing strange, indeed, it is that the 
actual murderer of Edward V. and his brother should be 
promoted to the superintendence of their grand-dam's 
robes, cloaks, and petticoats. The fact is horribly ludi- 
crous. The usurper was sore pressed by the poverty 
occasioned by the enormous bribes and other expenses 

* Sharon Turner. 



182 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

his exaltation required. So he had to seize on every 
vacant place as it fell, and bestow it, fit or unfit, on his 
agents in this terrific child-murder. No brief history- 
can find space to recount the showers of rewards that 
fell on sir James Tyrell, Miles Forest, and John Dighton, 
as blood money, on sir Robert Brakenbury and Greene, 
as hush money. Sir James Tyrell performed his func- 
tions as master of horse at Richard III.'s coronation at 
York; he was appointed too captain of Guisnes, near 
Calais.* He was given August 30th, 1483, three rich 
stewardships in the Marches of Wales and of New- 
port ; his rewards were enormous from Buckingham's 
subsequent spoils. His agent, Dighton, was made 
bailiff of Aiton, Staffordshire, with an ample salary 
for life. Greene was given the receivership of the Isle 
of Wight. Ample pardons (of which Dighton's is 
extant) were executed by Richard, f exonerating his 
ruffians from every species of crime human wickedness 
can perpetrate. All these are dated near or about the 
time of the regicidal child-murders in the Tower. 

A tradition is floating near Gipping, in Suffolk, 
that sir James Tyrell in the succeeding reign founded a 
chantry, or expiatory chapel, in which mass was sung for 
the souls of his two victims, and for his own most guilty 
soul. It is certain that a chapel built by sir James 
Tyrell is still at Gipping; that it is kept up in good 
order from funds provided for the purpose, and that it 
is the private chapel to the family mansion.^ Divine 
service is still celebrated there by a curate appointed 
by the representative of the Tyrell family, although, 
of course, prayers for souls have ceased since the 

* A most important place of trust. % We have been courteously fa- 

We think he was there at the acces- voured with this information by 

sion of Henry VII., and during Charles Tyrell, Esq., representative 

some years of that reign. of the Gipping branch of this ancient 

f Sharon Turner ; White Kennet ; Norman family. 
sir Harris Nicolas. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 183 

Reformation. Yet sir James Tyrell continues silently 
to implore them. Over the vestry door is inscribed 
in ancient characters the following words : — 

u Pray for the souls of sir James Tyrell and of Dame Anne* his wife." 

The two princes are not mentioned. Sir James confessed 
their murders when under sentence of death. He sur- 
vived his royal victims eighteen years, and was beheaded 
in 1502, having favoured the escape of John de la Pole, earl 
of Suffolk, the favourite nephew on whom Richard III. had 
settled the royal succession. Dighton likewise confessed 
the share he had in the crime, and was hung at Calais. f 
Forest died soon after the murders ; his widow was 
pensioned by Richard III. 

It was a point of vital importance to Henry VII., 
the husband of the heiress of these two murdered Plan- 
tagenets, that their burial place should be discovered, in 
order that the impostor Perkin "Warbeck might be con- 
futed. No one could reveal it. All likely to know had 
passed away. The priest was dead, and sir Robert 
Brakenbury had been slain on Bosworth Field, despe- 
rately fighting near the person of his master Richard III. 
As to John Dighton, he deposed concerning the first 
burial under the stairs of the Wakefield Tower, but he 
could not tell where the Tower priest had buried them 
the second time. 

Although the deaths of the hapless heirs of York 
opened the path to the English throne for their sister 
Elizabeth, she deeply mourned them when queen. She 
cherished their memories to the last days of her life. 
"We hope not quite so fiercely as her chronicle bard 
makes out in the " Song of the Lady Bessey," which 
declares that the lady Elizabeth of York came to 
Leicester, directly after the battle of Bosworth was 

* Anne Arundell of the ancient nection with his master's office 
family of Trehearne in Cornwall. of captain of Guisnes, near Ca- 

f This w has certainly some con- lais. 



184 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



decided, and witnessed the bringing in of her uncle's 
corpse, hanging across the horse in the well-known style 
of contumely, from the lost field. Moreover, that she 
addressed the poor corpse with the taunting question of 

" Uncle ! how like you now, 
The murdering of my brethren dear ? " 

This is in the old rugged northern edition, by the 
Stanley minstrel, the author of that most curious and 
spirited of our metrical chronicles.* We pause before we 
wholly acquit the Plantagenet heiress of outraging, in her 
sisterly agony of bereavement, the feminine softness of 
her character. The incident reveals her whereabouts just 
then, on which history is provokingly silent. It shews, 
with probability, that she was in the care of the Stanley 
party, who were in great power after the field of Bosworth. 
All was in the gift of the Stanleys, even the English 
crown. They used the power well by putting it on the 
head of Elizabeth's betrothed husband, and still better 
by beheading and hanging at Leicester most of Richard 
IIL's band of bravos, who had held England under 
military law and dictatorship for three years, upon the 
usual pretence of liberty.f Both sir William Stanley, 
lord Derby's brother, and his son, young lord Strange, 
had been in the service of Edward V., when prince of 
Wales, and had lived with him at Ludlow Castle. 
It was not unlikely that they shewed some traits of 
savageness, when they saw the dead murderer of their 
innocent young king, and that their excited feelings 
awakened response in the bosom of his loving and loyal 
sister. 

In the last year of her life, not long before she took to 
her chamber, at the Tower of London, Elizabeth of York 

* See Life of Elizabeth of York, Sir John Bucke, and many more of 

queen of England, " Lives of the Richard's vice-constables, were put 

Queens of England," by Agnes to death at Leicester that night and 

Strickland. next day. See White Kennet, George 

t Sir Richard Radcliffe, Catesby, Buclce, etc. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 185 

proved her sisterly loyo in a more ehristian-like mode, 
by giving a gratuity to the nurse of " my lord prince, 
her grace's most dear brother."* Probably this nurse 
was Mother Cobb, who took pity on the royal babe and 
his mother, when he first entered a world so adverse to 
him, in Westminster Sanctuary. The blind historian and 
laureate of England, Bernard Andreas, or Andrews, 
whose Latin chronicle forms the chief material of lord 
Bacon's elegant but eventless biography of Henry VII., 
mentions the enduring and passionate love Elizabeth 
manifested for all her brothers and sisters, especially for 
Edward V. It was natural : she was nearly eight years 
old when he was born, and she was the sharer of her 
mother's distress in the Sanctuary. 

Northcote's historical picture, representing the first 
burial of the murdered children, in some murky nook 
of the Wakefield Tower dungeons, unites appalling 
and beautiful traits. The brawny arms of the ruffian 
raised to receive the fair princes, so calm in death, 
robed in snowy night gear, and lowered down to 
the pit by the burly assassin, in steel jack and 
helm, on the top of the dungeon stairs, rendered more 
gloomy by the glare of a torch, is not only well 
imagined, but probably comes almost up to the truth. 

Paul de la Roche has rivalled, and perhaps surpassed, 
native genius in several passages in our histories. We have 
looked long and earnestly on his picture in the Luxem- 
bourg, representing the interior of the prison room of the 
Tower, containing Edward V. and his brother, just before 
the approach of the murderers. The children are seated, 
half dressed, on an antiquely carved bedstead. Young 
Richard shews alarm and terror in his countenance and 
attitude. Edward Y. leans listlessly on his arm, over a 
large missal, as if life were not worth a fear. A red 
light gleams into the dusk apartment, from under the 
door, and a little white spaniel anxiously announces 
* Compotus of Elizabeth of York. 1502—3. 



186 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

the approach of hostile steps. It is by no means likely 
that such a watchful and wakeful companion was left 
with them. 

In the quaint rhyming black letter chronicle, "Of the 
Kings of England from the flood of Noe," are these 
verses, under the portrait of Edward V. — 

i( This king came never to his coronation ; 
For the duke of Gloucester, without compassion, 
Called Richard, his uncle and protector, 
Caused him and his brother, in cruel fashion, 
Secretly to be murdered in London Tower. 
But the manner how these princes were dead ? 
Some say they were buried quick,* and some tell 
That they were smothered under a feather bed. 
Some say that they were drowned in a vessel ; 
But when they came into the Tower to dwell, 
They were never after seen with mannes eye.f 
Three months this king reigned, men know well, 
But God knoweth where his body doth lye." 

He is represented in this rude coloured wood cut in a 
flat black beret cap and white plume, with the crown in 
small size suspended over his head. He wears a small 
frill * or demi-ruff round his neck ; and below that a little 
round ermine tippet ; a robe, with cape trimmed with gold 
lace, over a scarlet robe, girt to his waist with a sash. As 
a popular resemblance of him within eighty years of his 
murder, and a popular version of his story, it is not with- 
out some slight degree of value. The picture and verses 
are printed on a sheet of pasteboard, between the portraits 
of Edward IV. and Richard III., with the royal arms of 
England and France rudely emblazoned over their heads 
within the ribbon of the garter. 

The portrait illustrating this Life is from the fine 

engraving by Houbraken, after Vandergucht. It is the 

most mature in years, and, therefore, represents Edward 

V. more as he was when engaged in the tragic incidents 

here detailed, than as the beautiful little child in the 

* " Quick" means alive. f Nearly the words of Fabyan's Chionicle. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 187 

Lambeth collection, to which, it bears a considerable 
likeness, as well as to his father's portrait. 

Two centuries passed away. The precise spot where 
the remains of the innocent victims rested, had long lost 
all political importance. A series of tragedies had suc- 
ceeded these murders at the Tower. The death of 
Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII., in childbed ; then the 
executions of Queen Anne Boleyn ; of Queen Katherine 
Howard, and of lady Jane Gray ; the severe imprisonments 
of Queen Elizabeth, of lady Katherine Gray, and of lady 
Arabella Stuart, had cast horror on the Tower of London 
as a palatial residence. 

The few rags of old hangings had been torn to tatters, 
and the remnants of furniture abstracted in the stormy 
days of the republic ; nothing remained in the lonely suite 
of Anglo-Norman chambers excepting the old oaken 
council table. Charles II. wanted a dry roof to cover 
great heaps of the national records ; his master of ord- 
nance, sir Thomas Chichely, wanted the same for his 
stores of artillery. So the deserted city palace was 
repaired and destined to these useful purposes. The 
vaults and hall thrown into one great gulph, served for 
the military stores ; while the forlorn state chamber suite 
of Norman royalty, and the beautiful but desecrated 
" chapel within the Tower/' were destined to receive the 
papers. An open stone staircase led up outside the White 
Tower to the chapel. At this time, 1674, it was ruinous and 
inaccessible. This staircase was ordered to be repaired 
and enclosed within the outer walls. When the workmen 
were digging at the foot, they found buried in the earth a 
great chest. On opening it, the mouldering remains of 
two boys were discovered. Sir Thomas Chichely's exca- 
vators had brought to light the long sought sepulchre 
of Edward V. and the little duke of York. Thus had 
the old priest of the Tower fulfilled the orders of 
Richard III. to the very letter, the grave of his 
victims was in hallowed ground, for the entrance to 



188 EDWARD THE FIFTH. 

the approach to the Tower chapel had certainly shared 
in the consecration of that place of worship. But 
an old priest so near death (if indeed he died by 
the visitation of God) could not have carried the 
chest and bodies ; he must have had help, and his 
helpers certainly spread the description of their doings, 
which found a way into chronicle ; for there is described 
explicitly " the interment under the stair's foot, under 
a heap of stones metely deep in the earth."* Such 
was considered illustrative of the unhallowed hole into 
which Dighton and Forest first hid the corpses. 

A more appropriate resting place was in the fulness 
of time assigned to the earthly remains of our young 
bachelor king of England, and the little widower, his 
brother, Richard, duke of York. Charles II., the repre- 
sentative of their eldest sister and heiress, Elizabeth of 
York, caused the bones of these murdered princes to 
be collected and enclosed in a marble urn, and deposited 
in a royal vault at the upper end of the north aisle of 
Henry the Seventh's chapel in Westminster Abbey, 
where a fair white marble tablet, sacred to their memory, 
is affixed to the wall, recording their mournful story in 
a brief Latin inscription, of which the following is the 
translation : — 

"Here lie the relies of Edward V., king of England, and 
Richard, duke of York, who, being confined in the Tower, and 
there stifled with pillows, were privately and meanly buried, 
by order of their perfidious uncle Richard, the usurper. Their 
bones, long inquired after and wished for, after lying 201 
years in the rubbish of the stairs (those lately leading to the 
White Tower) were on the 7th of July, 1674, by undoubted proofs, 

* Harrison, in his " Survey of the secrets of the grave well, nor was 
London," as well as Toone, mentions it the only time an arm chest has 
the important fact that the remains of been used as a coffin after a Tower 
the two children were enclosed in a murder. See Life of Anne Boleyn, 
chest. Arm chests were always ready *'Live3 of the Queens of England," 
at hand in the great national arsenal ; by Agnes Strickland, vol. 3, Li- 
air tight and water tight, they kept brary Edition. 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 189 

discovered, being buried deep in that place. Charles II., pitying their 
unhappy fate, ordered these unfortunate princes to be laid amongst the 
relics of their predecessors in the year 1678, and the 20th of his 
reign." 

To mark the spot where the bones were discovered, 
either sir Thomas Chichely, master of the ordnance, 
or Charles II., had a mulberry tree planted. It grew 
for about a century and a half, according to the habits 
of that long lasting fruit-tree, and was cut down so 
recently that the last topographer of the Tower affirms* 
that its dry trunk is still to be seen standing in a 
corner at the entrance of the stairs leading to the 
upper apartments and chapel, now called the Record 
Office.f 

Four stormy minorities had previously occurred among 
the reigns of our Plant agenet monarchs. In that of 
Henry III., his mother, Isabel of Angouleme, at first 
made some faint efforts to rule in her son's name after 
the custom of her native land of France, which usually 
gave the delegated sceptre to the nearest female relative. 
Isabel, the she-wolf of France, boldly seized the regency 
of her minor son, Edward III., murdering his father and 
afterwards his uncle, the earl of Kent. The English 
oligarchy, headed by the young king's nearest male 
relative, deposed her. In the woeful minorities of 
Richard II. and Henry VI., the royal mothers with- 
drew from competition. Thus repeated precedents were 
afforded for the preference given by Edward V.'s council 

♦ Vol. 2, Knight's "London." The their Norman costume, as a practical 

lt Tower," by Mr. J. Saunders. lesson on our domestic history to 

the numerous Tower visitors, far 

f All the beautiful Norman chapel more interesting to them than the 

and alcove chamber floor, are most Hotel de Cluny at Paris is to the 

provokingly encumbered with high French. For the Tower of London, 

deal frames full of papers. When both as palace and prison, has witnes- 

they are removed to her majesty's sed either the beginning or ending 

new Record Office, the royal suite of of most of the tragedies occurring 

apartments ought to be restored to in our national annals. 



190 



EDWARD THE FIFTH. 



to his uncle Gloucester, over his mother. Not that the 
uncles of his predecessors enjoyed their high privileges 
very peacefully. Edward III., Richard II., and Henry 
VI. had each an uncle murdered, the results either of 
the factions in their minorities or those which arose 
from them. Even the most prosperous of the minor 
sovereigns might have envied the happier fate of Edward 
V., who, with the " young babe, his brother/' was early 
put to rest under the shadow of the White Tower. 




Wakefield Tower and Portcullis Gateway. — See page 170. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 





' V///Y/U/ ///r j//.s'/7t y 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Edward VI. the third bachelor king of England— His parentage — Birth — 
Rejoicings — Arrangements for his christening in Hampton Court chapel 
— Splendid font and canopy (see tailpiece to this chapter) — Christening 
solemnity — Edward's sister, princess Mary, godmother — Death of the 
queen his mother — His beauty, strength, and promise— King Henry's rules 
for his nursery — His nurse, mother Jak — His lady mistress, her reports 
of his infant progress — Complaints of his shabby dress — Edward visited by 
lord chancellor and privy council — Their favourable reports of him — His 
dry nurse, Sibilla Penne — His infant portrait, by Holbein — His new 
year's gifts — Fondness for his royal stepmother, Katharine Parr — His 
infant establishment broken up — His learned education commences in his 
sixth year — His schoolmasters — Edward's love for his little playfellow, 
Jane Dormer — His charming qualities — Edward's rapid progress in 
latin — His' proxy for correction, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick — His early 
letters to queen Katharine, his sister Mary, and the king his father 
— Presents of jewellery from the king his father — His first public appear- 
ance — Heads the cavalcade of nobles sent to meet French ambassador — 
— Shares in festivities at Hampton Court — His portraits at nine years old 
— He returns to Hatfield, begins to learn French — His affectionate letters 
— Preparations for creating him prince of Wales— Death of the king 
his father. 

The third and last Bachelor King of England was Edward 
Tudor, the son of Henry VIII. , by his third queen, Jane 
Seymour. This prince, to whom the Church of England 
is indebted for the inestimable boons of her liturgy, offices, 
and catechism, was born at the palace of Hampton Court, 
about two o'clock in the morning of Friday, October 12th, 
1537, being the feast of St. Wilfred and the vigil of the 
royal English saint Edward the Confessor,* a very high 
day in the Eomish Calendar. 

* Appendix to Literary Ptemains of Edward "VI., by J". G. Nichols. 
Printed for the Roxburgh Club. 
13 



194 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

A report "that the queen had been happily brought to 
bed of a prince," was in circulation five days before that 
eagerly anticipated event occurred, and is mentioned by 
lord Maltravers in a letter to Cromwell, Henry's prime 
minister, dated Croydon, October 7th* When, however, 
the auspicious birth actually took place, it was triumphantly 
proclaimed to the whole realm in a circular put forth in 
the name of the queen, under her privy seal, as had been 
done at the birth of Elizabeth by the ill-fated Anne 

Boleyn. 

" Te Deum was sung in the cathedral church of bt. 
Paul right solemnly," we are told, " and in all the other 
churches in the city ; bonfires were made in every street, 
and so continued with banqueting, triumphing, and 
shooting of guns, all day and night, in the goodliest 
manner that might be desired ; and messengers were sent 
to all estates and cities in the realm, of these most joyful 
and comfortable tidings, to whom were given great and 
large gifts, and over all Te Deum was sung, with ringing 
of bells, and bonfires made in praise of God, and rejoicing 
of all Englishmen."t Among other demonstrations of 
loyal affection in the town of Leicester on this memora- 
ble occasion, nuts and apples were given at the rejoicings 
for the birth of the prince, as appears by the corporation 
records, and rewards and refreshments were bestowed on 
the royal messengers' who brought the news.J 

The universal joy which pervaded England, at the 
nativity of an heir of the realm born of an undisputed 
marriage, was only alloyed by the fact that the^lague 
was at that time raging in the metropolis and its pur- 
lieus, and the king had established very stringent regula- 
tions to prevent the access of any of his loyal lieges at 
Hampton Court, lest they should communicate the infec- 
tion to his sacred person, or that of the new-born prince 
The marchioness of Dorset, to whom the distinction of 

* Howard's Letters. t Additional MSS., British Museum, 6113, lxvi. 

X Chamberlain's Accounts. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 195 

bearing the royal infant in the christening procession 
had been assigned, received a peremptory order from the 
king not to come to Hampton Court, for the performance 
of this duty, as he had heard that three or four persons 
were ill at Croydon, where she resided, and it was possible 
their malady might be the plague.* 

The grand solemnity of the christening of the infant 
prince was appointed to take place in the chapel royal 
of Hampton Court, on the evening of Monday, October 
15th, the third day after his birth. A large porch had 
been erected at the chapel door, covered with cloth of 
gold and costly arras, and richly carpeted. The whole of 
the body of the chapel was hung with the like, and in 
the midst of the chapel a high stage or mount, as it is 
called, was raised, eight feet square, in the centre of which 
a rich font of silver gilt was placed, having a magnificent 
canopy, covered with cloth of gold and fringed with gold, 
suspended over it, the barriers which surrounded it being 
also covered with cloth of gold. The font, which was 
large enough to allow the baptism to be performed by 
immersion, was elevated on four steps, on every side 
covered with rich carpeting. On these steps the officiating 
bishop, priests, and knights in aprons with towels, who 
were to guard the font, and all the assistants and robe 
officials, were to stand awaiting the coming of the princely 
neophyte, and his godmother, the princess Mary, the 
raised platform on which the font stood being approached 
by three flights of stairs. This splendid font and canopy, 
with all the arrangements for the solemnity in the chapel 
royal, are represented in the tailpiece of this chapter, 
from a curious contemporary drawing of the scene, pre- 
served in the College of Arms. 

This procession was formed in the prince's lodgings, 

whence it passed through the council chamber, and the 

king's great chamber, into the gallery communicating 

with the chapel ; passing the whole way between barriers 

* State Papers and Letters. 



19 g EDWAKD THE SIXTH. 

or rails covered with crimson cloth, the path between 
he barriers being strewn with fresh green rushes F »t 
walked gentlemen esquires and knights, two and two, 
Tat being a torch in his hand, which was not to be 
Sited till the baptismal rite had been accomphshed. 
Tien came the king's chaplains, followed by abbots 
and bishops; after them, the king's council; the nobles 
raied ace rding to their degree, the foreign ambas- 
sadors lord chamberlains, the lord chancellor coupled 
wlh the prime minister, lord Cromwell, whose son 
21 to the queen's sister, Elizabeth Seymour, 
was married to tne ^uwu. => > fi „+ D ,.}>iiw 

The two godfathers, Cranmer, archbishop of Canteibury 
anl ne duke of Norfolk, uncle to the late murdered 
• ueen Anne Boleyn, were followed by her contempt* e 
Sler' who degraded himself and her memory by conde- 
Iceninl to b'ecome one of the actors at the pompous 

chtistenfng show of the son of her triumphant riva , by 
chnstening s ^ & tQwel about ^ 

b n :r g Th S tlhilg sight of all was the young 
Iterless Elizabeth, who carried the crysom She was 
v • +>,* arms of the new queen's brother, Edward 

tzz who w «-* " ea to the r age by 

^Tt'uriouB contemporary drawing of this scene pre- 
I ;rrTcoUe« of Arms, shows that the royal infant 

MSSF Z Sy -tress or governess walked 
be Itte noble hearer of the prince, and rs represented 
inte tawing carefully holding him by he tee te 
prCT ent his eliding off the cushion on which he* h«m£ 
His nurse and the queen's midwife walk on either siae 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 197 

his train bearers. Next after the canopy came his eldest 
sister, the princess Mary, the lacly godmother, her train 
borne by lady Kingston, heading the procession of the 
great ladies and noble gentlewomen, who followed 
according to their degree. 

Near the font a traverse of crimson damask had been 
prepared in which the prince was to be made ready for 
the font by disrobing him of his ermine and pall, and 
stripping him for the reception of the holy rite, which 
was performed after the ancient custom of the church 
by immersion. Among the furniture of the traverse 
are enumerated pans of coals burning sweet perfumes, 
basins and chafers (chafing-dishes) of silver gilt, with 
water, to wash the prince if necessary, and of this 
water " sure assayes were to be taken," lest poison, or 
any thing of a noxious nature to the precious infant, 
should haply have been infused by some maliciously dis- 
posed person. The royal infant was presented at the 
baptismal font by his eldest sister, the princess Mary, 
Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, and the duke of 
Norfolk, his sponsors, and received the popular and truly 
English name of Edward. Then the torches were all 
lighted, and Garter, principal king at arms, proclaimed 
his style and title in these prayerful words, " God, of his 
almighty and infinite grace, give and grant good life and 
long to the right high, right excellent, and noble prince, 
prince Edward, duke of Cornwall and earl of Chester, 
most dear intirely beloved son to our most dread and 
gracious lord king Henry VIII. Largess ! largess !" 

While the newly baptised prince was making ready in 
his traverse for his home-bearing, Te Beum was sung, 
after which napkins were handed to the princess Mary, the 
officiating bishop, and the two godfathers, in preparation 
for serving them with spice (the ancient name for comfits 
and bon-bons), wafers, and the christening cup. This 
curious interlude in the solemnity was performed with 
great pomp and ceremony by noblemen duly appointed, 



198 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

who reverentially served the princess Mary and her 
infant sister, Elizabeth, with spice, wafers and wine. The 
godfathers and bishop, and the duke of Suffolk, who 
acted as godfather at the confirmation, were served with 
the spice, wafers and cup, by knights appointed by the 
lord chamberlain. It is particularly noticed that all 
" other estates and gentils within the church and court 
were served with spice and ypocras ; and to all other, that 
is, the loving spectators of low degree, were given bread 
and sweet wine." In the returning procession the 
christening gifts of the sponsors were borne before the 
princely neophyte. His sister and godmother, the princess 
Mary, presented him with a large golden cup ; his god- 
fathers, Cranmer and Norfolk, each three great bowls 
and two pots of silver gilt ; and the duke of Suffolk, two 
great flagons, and two great pots of silver gilt. 

The prince was borne back to the queen, his mother's, 
chamber with great state, preceded, accompanied, and 
followed, by the long procession of gentlemen, knights, 
heralds, and sergeants at arms, bearing maces and lighted 
torches, the trumpets sounding all the way ; and when he 
was brought to the queen's chamber the trumpeters and 
others, minstrels — of course, a full band — stood in the 
courts below, within the gates, blowing and playing, 
" which was a melodious thing to hear," says our 
authority,* but in reality the clamorous precursor of 
his royal mother's knell. She, notwithstanding the 
weakness incidental to her condition, the third day 
after a dangerous child-birth, had to comply with the 
royal etiquette, which required a queen of England, on 
such occasions, to perform a public part, by being 
removed from her bed to the state pallet, a sort of 
large couch or sofa, surmounted with the crown, there 
to recline propped on cushions of cloth of gold, en- 

* Christening of prince Edward, in Appendix of Literary Remains 
from additional MSS., British Mu- of king Edward VI., by J. G. 
seura. MS. College of Arms cited Nichols. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 199 

veloped in her mantle of crimson velvet and ermine, 
to receive, embrace, and bestow her maternal blessing on 
her babe after his return from his christening, in the 
presence of those who had been assisting at the solemnity, 
and probably to return her thanks to the sponsors and 
bishop for the good service they had performed. King 
Henry had remained with the queen, seated by her pallet 
during the baptismal service, which was not over till mid- 
night, when, all things being accomplished in due form, 
the prince was borne to the king and queen, "and had," 
says our record, "the blessing of Almighty God, our 
Lady, and St. George, and his father and mother."* 

The natural consequence of this unseasonable excitement 
and fatigue to the queen was, that fever and inflammation 
ensued, and on the 24th of October she expired. The bed 
in which Edward Tudor was born and the queen his 
mother died was seen by Hentzner, the German traveller, 
when he visited Hampton Court Palace, fifty years later. 
It was probably swept away, or sold among other relics 
of ancient English royalty, by Oliver Cromwell, on taking 
up his abode in the old Tudor palace. 

The departure of queen Jane was, we are assured by a 
contemporary, " as heavy to the king as ever was heard 
tell of."f Nevertheless, in the letter which officially 
announced his bereavement to his ambassadors at the 
court of France, they were especially exhorted, by the 
royal widower's desire, to report which of the French 
princesses they thought would be most suitable to supply 
his loss. J Conjugal grief, indeed, appeared to have been 
wholly forgotten in the paternal rapture at the birth and 
hopeful promise of his boy, and the pleasing excitement 
of looking out for a new wife. 

One of king Henry's flattering courtiers, sir Richard 
Morysine, who afterwards filled several important diplo- 
matic offices at foreign courts, published a long, elaborate 

• Ibid. f Herald's Journal. 

% State Paper Office MSS., French correspondence, No. 84. 



200 EDWAKD THE SIXTH. 

essay, entitled " Comfortable Consolation, wherein People 
may see how far Greater Causes they have to be glad 
for the Joyful Birth of Prince Edward than sorry for 
the Death of Queen Jane."* 

The birth of prince Edward, and the death of the 
queen, his mother, were commemorated in elegant 
Latin lines, in allusion to her father's crest, a phoenix 
in flames within a crown. The following is the transla- 
tion, probably intended for the epitaph of the royal 
mother : 

" Here lies the Phoenix, lady Jane, 
^Whose death a Phoenix bare, 
Oh, grief! two Phoenixes one time 
Together never were."f 

Under the fostering care of the good gentlewoman who 
acted as his wet nurse, and whom, in his first lisping 
accents, he subsequently called " mother Jak," the new- 
born heir of England throve well, and, as Mr. Secretary 
Wriothesley, in his despatch announcing the death of 
the queen, gravely enjoins lord William Howard to 
testify at the court of France, " sucked like a child of 
puissance." 

A regular household and establishment were appointed 
for this puissant prince by his august sire, of whom 
mother Jak and his four rockers were doubtless the most 
interesting functionaries to his grace, though he had sir 
William Sidney, the cousin of the king's brother-in-law, 
Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, and progenitor of the 
accomplished sir Philip Sidney, for his chamberlain, sir 
John Cornwallis for the steward of his household, with 
numerous other gentlemen of ancient name and good 
reckoning, in his muster roll. 

Regulations to be observed in the royal household, for 
the safety and preservation of the infant prince, were 
drawn up by Henry himself with great minuteness, 
prefaced by a declaration that, " even as God himself had 

* Harleian Collection, vol. i. f Speed's Chronicle. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 201 

the devil repugnant to him, and Christ his antichrist and 
persecutor, so doubtless the prince's grace, for all his 
nobility and innocence (albeit, he had never offended 
any one), yet by all likelihood he lacked not envy and 
adversaries, who either for their ambition, or otherwise 
to fulfil their malicious perverse mind, would perchance, 
if they saw opportunity, which God forbid, procure his 
grace displeasure/' to prevent which it was enjoined 
that no person of whatsoever rank or degree should 
approach the cradle without an order under the king's 
hand. The material of his clothing was to be carefully 
tested, examined, and considered, lest it might contain 
any substance of a quality injurious to his grace's health. 
His linen was to be washed by his own servants, and 
none other persons were to touch it, and nothing of any 
kind for his use brought into the nursery till it had been 
carefully washed and perfumed, the use of perfumes 
being, by-the-bye, anything but a sanitary practice, for 
an infant, especially of so tender an age as the new-born 
heir of England. " His food was to be elaborately 
tested and assayed to avert the danger of poison. The 
chamberlain or vice-chamberlain was to be present morn- 
ing and evening, when his grace was washed and dressed, 
and no unauthorised person was to have access to his 
apartments, above all, pages and boys were to be 
excluded, for fear of inconveniences or accidents resulting 
from their thoughtlessness. No member of his establish- 
ment was permitted to approach London during unhealthy 
seasons, lest they should be the means of conveying 
infection to his grace ; and if any beggar should presume 
to draw nearer the gates than was appointed for the 
reception of alms he was to be grievously punished for 
ah example to others."* 

The beauty of the royal infant is thus testified by lady 
Lisle, in a letter to her husband from Hampton Court. 
" His grace the prince is the goodliest babe that ever I 
* Hall's MSS, * 



202 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

set mine eyen upon. I pray God to make him an old 
man. . I think I should never weary with looking upon 
him/' To Margaret, lady Bryan, the daughter of 
Humphrey Bourchier, lord Berners, and widow of sir 
Thomas Bryan, was assigned the office of lady mistress or 
governess to the. young prince, she having faithfully and 
wisely presided over the early education and conduct of 
the two princesses, his sisters.* Her letters prove her to 
have been a benevolent, conscientious, and judicious 
person ; and perhaps the amiable and noble qualities 
which so eminently adorned the character of our young 
bachelor king were the result of the good seeds im- 
planted by this excellent lady, his earliest preceptress. 

The sylvan palace of Havering-bower was chosen for 
the nursery establishment of the young prince/ and lady 
Bryan duly communicated the most minute particulars 
connected with him. In one of her letters, apparently in 
answer to an intimation she had received from Cromwell 
that she would have to exhibit her princely charge to the 
lord chancellor and other lords of the council, who had 
received licence from the king to visit and pay their duty 
to him, and that the king desired her to set him forth to 
the best advantage, she complains of the unsuitable state 
of the prince's wardrobe, although she promises " to do 
her best to accomplish the king's command, with such 
things as she has to do it with, which," pursues her lady- . 
ship, " are but very bare for sucli a time." 

According to the following pitiful statement we find 
that although Henry VIII. vied with the king of dia- 
monds in his own dress and elaborate decorations, he 
was not very liberal in distributing rich array and 
jewellery to his children. " The best coat my lord prince 
hath," continues lady Bryan, "is tinsel, and that he shall 
have to wear at that time, with never a good jewel to 
set on his cap ; but I shall order all things the best I can 
for my lord's honour, so as I trust the king's grace shall 

* Strype's Memorials ; Ellis ; Nichols. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 203 

be contented withal ; and also master vice-chamberlain, 
and master cofferer, I am sure will do the best diligence 
that lieth in them in all causes." She communicates in 
conclusion this pleasing intelligence of the progress of 
the infant heir of England. "My lord prince is in good 
health, and now his grace hath four teeth, three full cut 
and the fourth appeareth."* 

My lord prince was blessed not only with excellent 
health and precocious intelligence, but a remark- 
ably sweet temper. How well he had thriven under 
the fostering nurture of "mother Jak," and the early 
training of his lady mistress, appears by the official 
report of the lord chancellor, who, with the other lords 
of the council, came early in the month of September 
to see and pay their duties by the king's licence to the 
royal nursling at Havering-bower. Edward, who was 
then only in the eleventh month of his age, instead of 
, exhibiting either terror or displeasure at the unwonted 
approach of so many strange men, gave his visitors a 
most gracious reception,' to their " rejoice and comfort," as 
their secretary quaintly informs Cromwell, Henry's prime 
minister. " And I assure your lordship," continues he, 
" I never saw so goodly a child of his age ; so merry, 
so pleasant, so good and loving countenance, and so 
earnest an eye, as it were [exercising] a sage judgment 
towards every person that repaireth to his grace, and 
as it seemeth to me, thanks be to our Lord, his grace 
encreaseth well in the air that he is in. And, albeit a little 
his grace's flesh decayeth [meaning that he was losing 
a little of his infantine fatness] yet he shootet.h out in 
length, and waxeth firm and stiff, and can steadfastly 
stand, and would advance himself to move and go, if 
they would suffer him, but as meseemeth they do the 

* The readers of the "Lives of the dition of the princess Elizabeth's 
Queens of England,'' will doubtless wardrobe, not only for lack of robes 
remember a previous letter of lady of state, but even of linen and cloth- 
Bryan, describing the destitute con- ing of all kinds. 



204 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



best, considering his grace is yet tender, that he should 
not strain himself, as his own courage would serve him 
till he come above a year of age." From the same 
authority we learn that the king was about to remove 
the prince and his nursery establishment from Havering, 
considering it too cold a house for his winter residence, 
in which opinion the lord chancellor and council express 
their concurrence. Their scribe concludes their report of 
the royal infant in these words, "I cannot comprehend nor 
describe the goodly towardly qualities that be in my lord 
prince's grace. He is sent of Almighty God for all our 
comforts. My daily and continual prayer is and shall be 
for his good and prosperous preservation, and to make his 
grace an old prince."* 

Edward remained at Havering - bower till he had 
completed his first year, at which period he was weaned, 
and a gentlewoman of the name of Sibilla Penne, sister to 
lady Sidney, the wife of his chamberlain, obtained the 
appointment of dry nurse to his little grace, after repeated 
and earnest solicitation in her behalf, by her good 
brother-in-law, sir William Sidney, to the source whence 
all preferment flowed, Cromwell. f In reply to the premier's 
inquiry as to the capability of mistress Sibilla Penne, 
and her fitness for the office to which she aspired, 
Sidney writes : 

" I do not only perceive that your lordship's good pleasure is 
that I should signify unto you the good ability of my wife's sis- 
ter for the room of my lord prince's good grace's dry novrice, but 
also that I should weigh the great charge that shall be committed 
unto her, with the like consideration of the king's majesty, as well 
towards your good lordship for the motion and instance of my 
poor suit therein, as also unto me for commencement, and attempting 
of the same, so that if I thought the thing meet for the taking 
upon her, I should so write plainly unto you. My lord to declare 
the truth in this behalf, I doubt not but that she is and shall 
be found, both for her wisdom, honest demeanour, and faithful- 

* Letter in State Paper Office, from Berechurch, near Colchester, Sept. 
8th, 1538. f State Paper Office, MS. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 205 

ness every way, an apt woman for the same, in whom I dare 
well justify there shall be found no laek of good will, truth, and 
diligence towards the good administration of that which unto her 
office and duty shall appertain at all times as knoweth Jesu."* 

Mistress Sibilla, who was the wife of king Henry's 
barber surgeon, had the good fortune to obtain the 
situation she sought, and went with her royal charge to 
Hunsdon, where prince Edward spent the winter.f "While 
at Hunsdon, we find mistress Sibilla employing herself 
one Sunday in inditing, by her amanuensis, a letter to 
Cromwell, earnestly soliciting the grant of the monastery 
of Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which she finally 
obtained, together with the manor of Breamond.J The 
princess Mary, who seems to have been very fond of 
her baby brother, and innocent superseder in the royal 
succession, presented Mrs. Sibilla Penne with five yards 
of yellow satin, at seven and sixpence a yard, for a new 
year's gift, probably to make a cloak. Mary also gave 
his four rockers each a gilt spoon, which cost her forty- 
three shillings, and to his physician, Dr. Owen, a satin 
doublet, costing twenty-four shillings. § 

When the prince was about fourteen months old Hol- 
bein, the court painter, was permitted to take a slight 
sketch of his head in crayons, as a study for the fine 
portrait which, as the most acceptable new year's gift 
he could offer to his royal patron, he presented to king 
Henry in 1538-9. The crayon sketch, which is among 
the Holbein heads at Windsor, is in full face, fat, fair, 
and placid, in a close fitting plain cambric baby cap. 
The portrait is a beautiful work of art,|| a whole length, 
richly robed in crimson velvet, faced with gold, and with 

* This letter is dated from Haver- J Privy Purse Expenses of the 

ing-of-the-boore, the 3rd day of princess Mary, edited by sir F. 

October. Literary Remains of King .^Madden. 

Edward VI., by Nichols ; printed for , «.. , 
the Roxburgh Club. 

f Nichols' Literary Remains of || In the collection of the earl of 

Edward VI. Yarborough, Arlington street. 



J_ 



206 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

full sleeves of cloth of gold, holding a rattle in his hand. 
Over his lawn baby cap he wears a hat of crimson velvet, 
with a short drooping ostrich feather. 

The establishment of the infant heir of England in- 
cluded a band of minstrels and musicians, in whose 
performances he manifested great delight at a very 
tender period of his age, as his lady mistress testifies 
in a very pretty letter to Cromwell, reporting the health 
and flourishing progress of her royal charge, then about 
eighteen or twenty months old : 

"My lord prince is in good health and merry, as 
wold to God the king's grace and your lordship had 
seen him yester night, for his grace was marvellous 
pleasantly disposed. The minstrels played, and his 
grace daunced and played so wantonly that he could 
not stand still, and was as full of pretty toyes (toying) 
as ever I saw child in my life."* 

The following new year's day a magnificent present of 
silver gilt plate was sent by king Henry to his son. The 
princess Mary, moved probably by the naive complaints 
of lady Bryan of the scanty and unsuitable state of her 
little brother's wardrobe for the reception of state visits, 
presented him with a coat of crimson satin, embroidered 
with gold and pansies of pearls, sleeves of tinsel, and four 
aglettes of gold, also a cap which cost her sixty-five 
shillings, f The young Elizabeth gave him at the same 
time a cambric shirt of her own making. 

In the early part of the ensuing summer the little 
prince was brought to the palace at Westminster for 
a little while, and one day in the early part of July, 
1539, Henry VIII., in a more gracious mood than ordi- 
nary, withdrew himself from his ominous theological 
labours of framing the six articles, and sought the 
nursery of his blooming boy; "and there," says our 

* State Paper Office MS. 

f Privy Purse Expenses of the lady Mary, edited by sir Frederick 
Madden. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 207 

authority,* "hath solaced with him all the day, with 
much mirth, and with dallying with him in his arms 
a long space, and so holding him in a window to the 
sight and great comfort of all the people." 

Beautiful and animated as he was, the motherless little 
prince was doubtless an object of very tender interest to 
all persons of warm hearts and natural sensibility; it 
must, besides, have been gratifying to them to observe 
one human trait manifested by their ruthless sovereign, 
who had, in the course of the last five years, consigned 
so many of the good, the learned, and the noble of 
the land on frivolous pretences to the axe, the halter, 
or the stake. 

During the years 1540 — 41, while Henry was occu- 
pied with wooing, wedding, and ridding himself of his 
fourth and fifth wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine 
Howard, we hear little of his infant son. In October, 
1542, when the king was again a widower, the hope- 
ful heir -apparent is once more rendered an object 
of attention to his future subjects, and after the great 
Irish chieftain, Con O'Xiel, had been created earl of 
Tyrone, he and his attendants, sir Dale and sir Arthur 
Guineys, with the bishop of Clogher, were conducted by 
Wlatt and Bryan Tuke into the presence of the little 
prince, to see and perform their duties to his grace. f 

Schemes for extension of his dominions by a marriage 
between prince Edward and Mary queen of Scots, occu- 
pied the mind of Henry VIII. , from the moment he 
received the announcement, in the name of the new- 
born inheritrix, of the decease of his nephew, king 
James V., in December, 1542, and of her accession to the 
throne of Scotland. Before Mary was six weeks old he 
made a formal demand of her hand in behalf of the 
bachelor heir of England, who had just completed his 

* Richard Cromwell to lord Cromwell, State Paper Office MS., second 
series, toI. vii., p. 188. 

f Privy Council Register. 



208 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

fifth year. The intrigues, threats, and cruel hostilities 
with which this premature wooing of the infant maiden 
sovereign was carried on, have been related in a previous 
series of royal biographies,* to which the reader is 
referred. 

The following summer the prince was removed to 
Ashridge, where he and his establishment were located 
in the house which had been the monastery of a frater- 
nity of monks, called the Bonhommes, in order to be near 
the king his father, who was residing for a time at his 
royal manor of Ampthill in Bedfordshire.! Henry 
entered into the bonds of wedlock, for the sixth time, by 
espousing, in July, 1543, Katharine Parr, the widow of 
lord Latimer, by which marriage the little prince, then 
in his fifth year, acquired a third stepmother, one whom 
he entirely loved and greatly venerated. 

It has been conjectured that Edward's early education, 
while, to use his own expression, he was brought up 
among the women, was conducted by Katharine Parr, 
and that his love for study, and zeal for the principles 
of the reformation, were implanted by her influence — 
an influence which she undoubtedly retained to the end 
of her life. 

Soon after the king's sixth nuptials had been celebrated, 
the matrimonial prospects of prince Edward assumed so 
favourable an aspect, that the articles of marriage between 
him and their infant queen were settled by the ruling 
powers in Scotland, and a treaty of peace and contract 
of betrothal was signed and sealed by the regent and 
Henry's ambassador, sir Ralph Sadler, in the abbey of 
Holyrood, with great solemnity. By the conditions of 
this treaty it was agreed that the royal bride should be 
sent to England as soon as she had completed her tenth 

* "Lives of the Queens of Scot- Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and 

land and English Princesses con- London. 

nected with the Regal Succession," f Literary Eemains of King 

by Agnes Strickland, Life of Edward VI. by Nichols, printed 

Mary Stuart, vol. iii., 3rd edition. by the Roxburgh Club. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 209 

year, to complete her education, an arrangement that 
would have afforded Edward the society of his affianced 
consort, and an opportunity of cultivating her regard. 
But the arrangement, being contrary to the wishes of her 
people, and against the consent of the queen mother, 
Mary of Lorraine, was broken within a fortnight of the 
ratification of the treaty.* 

The prince, after the marriage between his father and 
Katharine Parr was frequently residing with the royal 
pair, with whom the two princesses, his sisters, were now 
domesticated, for it appears to have been Katharine's desire 
to render herself a bond of union between the king and 
his children by his first three wives. In this she suc- 
ceeded in a manner scarcely credible, when the antagon- 
ism of the deceased queens, from whom Mary, Elizabeth, 
and Edward respectively derived their existence, is con- 
sidered. When the king determined on his expedition 
to France, and invested Katharine with the regency of 
the realm in his absence, the guardianship of prince 
Edward, and the princesses, his sisters, was also confided 
to her. 

A total change was at this period effected in Edward's 
establishment and routine of life, by the order of his 
father, who ordained that he should be removed to 
Hampton Court, and commanded the lord chancellor and 
the earl of Hertford, with others of the council, to proceed 
thither with his warrant the next day, and discharge 
all the ladies and gentlewomen out of the prince's house. f 
Brief and unceremonious warning this, for severing the 
silken ties of love which united the motherless heir of 
England to those from whom he had received all the 
tender attentions his bereaved infancy required, and by 
whom he had been so happily trained that he was 
regarded as a child of the fairest promise. Perhaps 

* Life of Mary Stuart, "Lives of Strickland, vol. iii., page 15, 16, 
the Queens of Scotland," by Agnes for very curious particulars, 
f State Papers. 
14 



210 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Henry thought the ladies were making his son too good, 
too gentle, too conscientious to fit him to play his part 
successfully in the arena of life — in a word, bringing him 
up more for heaven than earth — and therefore determined 
to cut the connexion effectually, by thrusting them all out 
of the prince's house, and placing him, as he was near 
the completion of his sixth year, under the tuition of men 
of eminent learning. 

Dr. Cox was appointed as his almoner and preceptor, 
assisted in the department of schoolmaster for his instruc- 
tion in Latin and Greek, by Mr. Cheke. John Belmayne 
was . his French master ; and sir Anthony Cooke, of 
Giddes -Hall, was to teach him manners, and all obser- 
vances of princely courtesy. He had also a German 
master, named Randolph, 

While Edward was residing either at Ashridge or 
Ampthill, a little girl about his own age, named 
Jane Dormer the granddaughter of sir William Sidney, 
was sometimes admitted to the honour of associating 
with him, her paternal grandfather, sir William Dormer, 
being steward of the royal manor of Ampthill, which 
was only a short distance from his own mansion at Ascot. 
The prince had, therefore, frequent opportunities of 
seeing her when she was brought to pay her duty 
to sir William and lady Sidney. "He took particular 
pleasure in her conversation, and greatly desiring her 
company, she was occasionally sent over with her 
governess"* to amuse the lonely royal child, "passing 
her time with him either in reading, playing, or dancing,, 
and such like pastimes answerable to their spirits and 
innocency of years. "f That infantine courtship on the 
part of the prince, and a spice of early coyness or coquetry 
on that of the little maiden, were sometimes enacted 
between the pretty twain, may be inferred from the 

* MSS. Memoirs of Jane Dormer, Literary Kemains of King Edward 
duchess de Feria, cited by Mr. VI., printed for the Roxburgh Club, 
Nichols in his valuable work, f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 211 

speech Edward was wont to use to her at cards, when 
the fortunes of the game so befell, " Now, Jane, your 
king is gone, I shall be good enough for you," and would 
call her "my Jane," their natural dispositions were so 
correspondent to each other.* 

The same authority whence the above pretty anecdote 
of the infancy of our last bachelor king is derived, 
bears testimony that his natural disposition was of 
" great towardness to all virtuous parts and princely 
qualities : a marvellous sweet child, of very mild and 
generous conditions." 

Under the tutelage of the learned doctors, whom the 
king had chosen to conduct the education of this promis- 
ing young prince, and the select number of children 
of gentle birth and breeding, who were chosen to share 
his studies and his pastimes, Edward entered upon a 
new era of life, and his progress in his education is 
thus described by his tutor, Dr. Cox, in a letter to some 
person in the court, evidently intended for the sove- 
reign's eye, because of the fulsome doses of flattery 
to that monarch, with which it is interlarded par paren-. 
thesis. 

" As concerning my lord and dear scholar," he writes, "it is kindly 
done of you to desire so greatly to hear from him, and of his proceedings 
in his valiant conquests. He can now read, and, God be thanked, 
sufficiently. And as he (God) hath prospered the king's majesty 
in his travails at Boulogne, surely, in like manner, thanks be unto 
God, my lord is not much behind on his part. He hath expugned 
and utterly conquered a great many of the captains of ignorance. 
The eight parts of speech he hath made his subjects and servants, 
and can decline any manner of Latin noun, and conjugate a 
verb perfectly, unless it be anomalum. These parts beaten down 
and conquered, be beginneth to build them up again and frame 
them after his purpose, with due order of construction, like as 
the king's majesty framed up Boulogne, after he had beaten it down. 
He understandeth and can frame well three concords of grammar, 
and hath made already forty or fifty pretty Latin verses, and can 
answer well favouredly to the parts, and is now ready to enter into 

* Ibid. 



212 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Cato, to some proper and profitable fables of iEsop, and other 
wholesome and godly lessons that shall be devised for him. Every 
day in the mass time, he readeth a portion of Solomon's Proverbs, for 
the exercise of his reading, wherein he delighteth mnch, and learneth 
there how good it is to give ear unto discipline, to fear Grod, to keep 
God's commandments, to beware of strange women, to be obedient 
to father and mother, and to be thankful to him that telleth him 
of his faults." 

The next paragraph certifies the fact that the little 
prince, gracious and docile as he was, was not entirely a 
perfect model of submission to his preceptor, but had 
manifested a sample of the determinative spirit of a royal 
Tudor. There had evidently been a struggle for the 
mastery between him and his pedagogue, in which the 
latter had found it necessary to inflict corporal chastise- 
ment on his precious charge, which is thus delicately 
alluded to in the following allegory, worthy of Dr. 
Fenning himself : 

" Captain Will was an ungracious fellow, whom to conquer I was 
almost in despair. I went upon him with fair means, and foul 
means, that is with menacing from time to time, so long that he 
took such courage, he thought utterly my meaning to be nothing but 
dalliance quid multa f Before we came from Sutton upon a day 
I took my morice pike, and at Will I went, and gave him ' such a 
wound that he wist not what to do, but picked him privately out 
of the place, that I never saw him since. Methought it the 
luckiest day that ever I had in battle. I think that only wound 
shall be enough for me to daunt both Will and all his fellows. How- 
beit, there is another cumbrous captain, that appeareth out of his 
pavilion, called Oblivion, who by labour and continuance of exercise, 
shall be easily chased away. He is a vessel most apt to receive all 
goodness and learning, witty, sharp, and pleasant." 

Dr. Cox was one of the greatest scholars in that age 
of learning. He had incurred persecution and censure 
for honestly declaring in favour of some of Luther's 
opinions, and had been stripped of his preferments and 
imprisoned under suspicion of heresy. After his release 
he became head master of Eton College, which was 
observed to flourish, remarkably under his judicious care. 
The selection of Dr. Cox for almoner and head preceptor 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 213 

of the young heir of England was peculiarly happy, for 
he presently engaged the affections of his royal pupil, 
whom he not only brought very forward in his studies, but 
imbued with sound principles of religion, and formed his 
tender mind to an early sense of the duties both of a 
Christian and a king. 

It must indeed have been an extraordinary case of 
contumacy which could have prompted so affectionately 
disposed and venerative a pedagogue, as Dr. Cox, to 
resort to the exercise of his "morris pike," as he delicately 
termed his birchen argument, on the sacred person of 
the heir-apparent of the realm. It was an infringement 
on the royal etiquette withal, which prescribed that when 
the prince was considered deserving of stripes they should 
be inflicted on a substitute. Fuller affirms that " Barnaby 
Fitz-Patrick was prince Edward's proxy for correction, 
though we may presume seldom suffering in that kind — 
such was the prince's general innocency and ingenuity 
to learn his book. Yet, when execution was done, as 
Fitz-Patrick was beaten for the prince, the prince was 
beaten in Fitz-Patrick, so great an affection did he bear 
his servant" 

Samuel Rowly, who wrote, about fifty years after 
the death of Edward VI., an historical play, called 
Henry VIII., introduces the prince and his whipping 
boy, not the royally descended Milesian youth, Fitz- 
Patrick,* but Edward Brown, one of the children of 
the chapel royal, who, after having suffered a severe 

* Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, who is created baron of Cowchill or Castle- 
sometimes called in the Zurich let- ton, and have the lands of Upper 
ters " the earl of Ireland," was the Ossory secured to him at the annual 
eldest son of Barnaby or Brian Mc quit rent to the crown of three 
Gill Patrick, chief of Upper Ossory, pounds. He married lady Margaret, 
and head of a family descended from the eldest daughter of Pierce Butler, 
the first Milesian king of Ireland. earl of Ormonde, by which alliance 
His father, on making his submission he became a distant connexion of 
in 1517, to the king's commissioners queen Elizabeth, through the Bo- 
for the settlement of Ireland, did so leyns. This lady was the mother of 
on the stipulation that he should be Barnaby, 



214 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

flogging, because the prince chose to play at tennis, 
instead of learning his Greek lesson, while he is still 
smarting from the effect of this cruelty and injustice, 
encounters his highness returning from the tennis 
court, who thus addresses him — 

" Why how now, Brown, what's the matter ? 
Brown. 

Your grace loiters and will not learn your book, and your 
tutors have whipt me for it. 
Prince. 

Alas, poor Ned, I am sorry for it, I'll take the more pains 
and entreat my tutors for thee : yet, in truth, the lectures 
they read me last night out of Yirgil and Ovid, I am 
perfect in, only I confess I am something behind in my 
Greek authors. * * * * In 

truth I pity thee, and inwardly I feel the stripes that 
thou bearest, and for thy sake I'll ply my book the faster. 
In the meantime thou shalt not say but the prince of 
Wales will honourably reward thy service. Come, Brown, 
kneel down. 
Will Somers (the court fool.) 

What will thou knight him, Ned? 
Prince. 

I will : my father has knighted many a one that never shed 
a drop of blood for him, but he has often for me." 

The senseless and most unjust system of inflicting 
a disgraceful corporeal punishment on the innocent for 
the faults committed, or duties neglected, by a boy of 
such high degree that he was to be considered by his 
schoolmasters as noli me tangere, appears to have originated 
with Henry VIII.'s regulations for the education of his 
illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Eichmond, who 
was brought up at Sheriff Hutton,'with other boys of 
gentle lineage, under the tutelage of Dr. Croke. The 
manly conduct of Cotton, the gentleman usher of the 
duke, in rescuing sundry substitutes selected at different 
times by the pedagogue to receive the stripes the 
tergiversations of the demi-royal pupil had merited, was 
considered so impertinent by Croke that he addressed a 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 215 

formal complaint to tlie premier, Cardinal Wolsey, of the 
insubordination caused by the unauthorised interference 
of Cotton, in withdrawing the boys by whose punishment 
it was necessary to intimidate the duke.* 

The excellent abilities and steady application [of prince 
Edward to his studies, in which he took great delight, 
caused him to make such rapid progress in his learning, 
that before he was eight years old he was able to write 
Latin letters in a beautiful hand. The earliest of these 
that has been preserved is a short billet in Latin to Dr. 
Cox, with rather a waggish apology for its brevity, in a 
classical quotation, which he applies very cleverly : — 

" I send to you a short letter, my dearest almoner, because I know 
short letters are to you as acceptable as long ones. For I am well 
aware that you have read in Cato's first book, twentieth verse, 'When 
a poor friend gives you a little present accept it kindly, and remember 
to praise it amply.' Though my letter is short, it wanteth not good 
will. I pray Grod to preserve you safe and in health. 

" Edwaed the Prince." 

"At Hertford, 11th 3farch, 1545."t 

In the following June, the same year, Edward wrote a 
dutiful epistle in Latin to his godfather, archbishop 
Cranmer, from Ampthill, where he was then sojourning 

* This Tudor system was un- uncle, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, 

doubtedly an innovation on the good finally, with great spirit, protested in 

old English custom of bringing up council against the chastisements 

the children of our Plantagenet that were inflicted upon him as 

sovereigns. We have already shown unreasonable and derogatory to his 

in a previous series of royal biogra- position, and obtained redress, being 

phies,that the governess of Henry VI., then in his eleventh year. See Life of 

Dame Alice Boteler, was empowered Katherine of France, " Lives of the 

by the privy council, in letters issued Queens of England," by Agnes 

in his own regal name, " to give Us Strickland, vol. ii, page 147, 

reasonable chastisement, from time to Library edition, also Acts of Privy 

time, as the case may require." The Council, 
like liberty was granted to his 

governor, the earl of Warwick, when f MS. Harleian. A translation 

the little monarch was in his seventh has been published by J. 0. Halli- 

year placed under masculine control ; well in his valuable collection of 

and so severely was it exercised, that Letters of the Kings of England, vol. 

his majesty, by the advice of his ii, page 5. 



216 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

with his establishment, and zealously pursuing his 
studies.* 

Edward was at Hunsdon in the autumn of 1545, 

whence he writes a dutiful epistle in Latin to his maternal 

uncle, Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, and early in 

the new year to his sister Mary, of whom he was then 

• very fond : — 

"It is so long since I wrote to yon, my very dear sister, that it 
may chance yon may think I have entirely forgotten you, but 
affection ever holds the chief place in my heart, both for you and 
my dearest mother. I hope soon to see you, and to tell you in truth 
how much and how greatly I esteem you. 

"Edwaed P."t 

" From Hunsdon, this 11th of January ." 

This letter was not the first he had written to Mary, as 
it contains a graceful apology for not having written for 
so long a time, thus certifying the fact that he was accus- 
tomed to correspond with her more punctually. The 
following letter to his learned step-mother, Katharine 
Parr, contains in like manner conclusive evidence that it 
was one of a series he had previously addressed to her : — 

"Most honourable and entirely beloved mother, I most humbly 
commend me to your grace, with my thanks, both for that your 
grace did so gently accept my simple and rude letters, and also that 
it pleased your grace to vouchsafe to direct unto me your loving and 
tender letters, which do give me much comfort and courage to .go 
forward in such things wherein your grace beareth me in hand that 
I am already entered. I pray God I may be able in part to satisfy 
the good expectations of the king's majesty, my father, and of your 
grace, whom God have ever in his most blessed keeping. 

"Your loving son, 

"E. Prince." 

Edward was again at Hertford in January 1545 — 6, 
whence his almoner, Cox, writes the following pleasant 
account of him to Cranmer : — 

* Foxe's Acts and Monuments, 
f Halliwell's Letters of Kings of England, vol. ii. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 217 

"My Lord's Grace, 

"Your godson is merry and in health, and of such 
towardness in learning, godliness, gentleness, and all honest equali- 
ties, that both you and I and all the realm ought to think him 
and take him for a singular gift soul of God, an impe worthy of such 
a father. * * * He hath learned almost four books of Cato to 
construe, and to say without book. And of his own courage now in 
the latter book he will needs have at one time thirteen verses, which 
he konneth pleasantly and perfectly, besides things of the Bible, 
Satellitium Vices* Esop's fables, and Latin making, whereof he hath 
sent your grace a little taste. "f 

A brief yet elaborate Latin epistle, more interesting to 
the parties concerned than it will prove to the readers 
of the " Bachelor Kings of England/' The archbishop, 
as in duty bound, returned a complimentary letter, replete 
with all good wishes, in the same learned language. 

Edward remained at Hertford till the spring of that 
year, and wrote several very ornate letters in Latin to Dr. 
Cox, who was absent from him about two months. His 
education was, however, progressing in much the same 
style, under the no less erudite Dr. Cheke. 

It was about this time that the learned Walter Haddon, 
then fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and subse- 
quently master of Magdalen College, had been given a 
letter from his friend, Dr. Cox, to the prince, which, 
being too modest to present himself, he delivered to 
Cheke, who not only handed it to the prince, but placed 
Haddon where he might enjoy the opportunity of seeing 
and speaking to his highness. Edward graciously 
addressed a few words to him, and inquired most kindly 
and very sweetly after his beloved almoner, and then 
passed on. The courtesy of the princely boy made so 
agreeable an impression on Haddon, that he wrote a very 
complimentary Latin acrostic on his name and title. 
Leland, the celebrated antiquary, also visited the prince 
when at Amp thill. 

* A collection of 214 mottoes, with f Literary Remains of King Edward 
commentaries, by the learned man, VI., Nichols. Printed for the Eox- 
Ludovico Vives. burgh Club. , 



218 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

In May, 1546, the princely student and his household 
were once more removed to Hunsdon, whence he addresses 
the following quaint but loving letter to his sister Mary : 

" Although. I do not frequently write to you, my dearest sister, 
yet I would not have you suppose me to be ungrateful and forgetful 
of you. For I love you quite as well as if I had sent letters to you 
more frequently, and I like you ever as a brother ought to like a 
sister who hath within herself all the embellishments of virtue and 
honourable station. For in the same manner as I put on my best 
garments very seldom, yet these I like better than the others, even so 
I write to you very seldom yet I love you most. Moreover, I am 
glad that you have got well, for I have heard that you had been 
sick, and this I do from the brotherly love I owe you, and from my 
good will towards you. I wish you uninterrupted health both of 
body and mind. Farewell in Christ, dearest sister. 

"Edward the Prince."* 

"Hunsdon, 8th of May." 

Four days later the learned but simple boy, who had not 
yet completed his ninth year, wrote in great alarm to his 
royal stepmother, queen Katharine, on a subject which 
evidently caused him great uneasiness, connected not 
with the gloom and bigotry of the princess Mary, but 
with her unwonted fun and friskiness, of which an ill- 
natured and exaggerated report had evidently been con- 
veyed to him, in his scholastic seclusion, to prejudice 
his mind against her, for he says : 

" Preserve, therefore, I pray you, my dear sister Mary, from all the 
wiles and enchantments of the evil one, and beseech her to attend 
no longer to foreign dances and merriments, which do not become a 
most christian princess, and so putting my trust in God for you 
to take this exhortation in good part, I commend you to his most 
gracious keeping, "f 

Edward wrote again to the queen on the 24th of May, 
a few lines, but without any further allusion to Mary and 
her dancing, merely alleging by way of excuse for troubling 
her majesty with another letter so soon, that having got a 

* From the Latin. Letters of the f Hunsdon, this 12th of May. 

Kings of England, collected by J. 0. Ibid. 
Halliwell. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 219 

suitable messenger he could not help sending a letter to 
testify his respect and affection to her.* On the 2nd 
and the 10th of June also he writes to the king his father, 
formal and declamatory Latin letters, so evidently the 
composition of his pedagogue that it is impossible not 
to pity the poor child the labour and weary woe of 
transcribing, in his fairest penmanship, such inflated 
farragoes of unnatural fustian. f 

Edward wrote a highly complimentary and philo- 
sophical Latin letter to the queen, his stepmother, on the 
10th of June, but there is a tone of genuine affection in 
the commencement, for which we look in vain in his 
epistles to his father : 

" Although, all your letters are sweet to me, yet these last were 
pleasing beyond the rest, most noble queen and most kind mother, 
for which I return you exceeding thanks. But truly by these I 
perceive that you have given your attention to the Roman charac- 
ters, so that my preceptor could not be persuaded but that your 
secretary wrote them, till he observed your name written equally 
well. I also was much surprised. I hear too that your highness 
is progressing in the Latin tongue and in the Belles Lettres. 
"Wherefore 1 feel no little joy, for lettres are lasting, but other 
things that seem so perish. Literature also conduces to virtuous 
conduct, but ignorance thereof leads to vice. And just as the sun 
is the light of the world so is learning the light of the mind.' , 

Henry YIIL had just returned home in triumph from 
his victorious but expensive French campaign, after the 
capture of Boulogne, and the prince |was naturally de- 
sirous of receiving an invitation to court, to see and pay 
his duty to his royal father, and witness the rejoicing 
for the peace. Henry, however, contented himself for 
the present with sending a gracious message to him, 

^ ji • j " Sweet, sweet Father, 

"i learn to decline substantives 

t How much more pleasing is and ad J ectives - Give me 7°" blessing, 
the naive billet, in which Charles '' i tuank yon for my best man. 

T , u c xv * our loving son, 

I., when a boy, of the same a«:e, ' 

"York 
announces to his fond parent his « To my father the kino-/' 
initiation into the mysteries of gram- _ Halliwell . g Letters of the Kings 



mar : — 



of England. 



220 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

intimating that he intended to send for him soon. The 
bearer of this message was a favourite musician in 
Henry's service, named Philip Van Wilder, to whom 
he had given the appointment of lute master to the 
prince. Edward acknowledged this paternal attention 
in the following discreetly worded letter : 

" Most noble king and most revered father, I thank yon that 
you have deigned to send me Philip, your servant, who is both 
eminent in music and a gentleman. For you have sent him to 
me that I may be more expert in striking the lute ; herein your 
love to me appeareth to be very great. Moreover, it hath brought 
some degree of joy to my mind, in that I have heard that I am to 
visit your majesty, for nature inclines me very much to this. Since 
this is true, I now obtain my second wish. My first was that you 
and your kingdom might have peace ; and secondly, that I might 
see you. These done, and I shall be happy. Farewell, most noble 
king, and father most illustrious ! I pray you bestow your blessing 
on me. 

"Edwaed the Peince."* 

" At Hunsdon, Uh July, 1546." 

It was probably during Edward's visit to his royal 
father on this occasion, that the celebrated painting of 
Henry VIII. and his united family, now at Hampton 
Court, was designed by Hans Holbein, where the young 
prince is represented wearing his cap and plume, standing 
at the king's right hand, who has his hand on his shoulder 
in a caressing attitude. f 

There is a very interesting whole length painting of 

* MS. Harleian, 5087, f. 7. From the face of Jane Seymour in her 

the Latin. Halliwell's Letters of the pointed head dress, superseded 

Kings of England. that of Katharine Parr, who must 

f This large and very elaborate have been dead before that laborious 

family picture, of which a vignette work of art was completed. This 

and description has already been valuable national picture was sold by 

given in my Life of Katharine Parr, Oliver Cromwell to Colonel "Well, 

"Lives of the Queens of England/' the 27th of October, 1649, for fifteen 

though begun in the life time of pounds, but was fortunately recovered 

Henry VIII, was not finished till the after the restoration of the royal 

reign of Edward VI., when, out of family, and is one of the great 

compliment to the young sovereign, attractions of the historical gallery 

or his uncle the protector Somerset, at Hampton Court Palace. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 221 

Edward, by Holbein, representing him before his acces- 
sion to the throne, among the earl of Denbigh's valuable 
collection of historical portraits at Newnhani. The young 
prince is apparently about nine years old ; his countenance 
is mild, thoughtful, and intellectual ; his features and 
complexion of almost feminine delicacy. He wears his 
flat velvet cap, with a short white ostrich feather drooping 
over the left temple, and is attired in a closely fitting 
russet coat, buttoned tightly up to the throat, and 
belted to his waist, with square flaps descending to his 
knees. His sleeves are slashed with small puffs of muslin, 
and over this dress he has a short full robe with hanging 
sleeves of scarlet damask, laced with gold, and turned 
back with a broad ermine collar with long ends. He 
holds a dagger in one hand, and a large green silk 
purse in the other. 

The pride and pleasure Henry took in his beautiful 
and hopeful son was testified by the number of presents 
for the decoration of his person, which he lavished upon 
him at this time. These are gratefully acknowledged by 
the prince in a reverential Latin letter, in which he says, 
"I also thank you that you have given me great and 
costly gifts, as chains, rings, jewelled buttons, neck-chains 
and breast pins, and necklaces, garments, and many other 
things, in which things and gifts your fatherly affection 
towards me is conspicuous, for if you did not love me 
you would not give me those fine gifts of jewellery."* 

He writes to queen Katharine a few days afterwards, 
apologising " for not having written to her before, 
having barely had time to write to the king's majesty, 
thanks her for her kind behaviour to him when he 
was with her at Westminster, and assures her that 
although this gentle behaviour could not but excite his 
grateful affection, it was impossible for him to love her 
better than he already did." 

A subject of no ordinary importance occupied the 

* MS. Harleian, 5087, August 14th, 1546. 



222 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

thoughts of the young heir of England at this time. 
It was the intention of his royal father to introduce 
him into public life, by mounting him on horseback 
and placing him at the head of the cavalcade of nobles, 
knights, and gentlemen appointed to meet and welcome 
Claude Annebaut, the great admiral of France and am- 
bassador extraordinary from Francis I., for the ratification 
of the treaty of peace just concluded between the lately 
warring realms. 

Naturally desirous, both for his own credit and the 
honour of England, to acquit himself properly on this 
occasion, Edward, who had not yet completed his ninth 
year, anxiously entreats his friendly stepmother, in 
this confidential letter, to " inform him whether the 
admiral understood Latin well, for if he does/' con- 
tinues the young royal student, " I should wish to 
learn further what I may say to him when I come 
to meet him. 5 '* 

The momentous day soon arrived, the ambassador and 
his fellow commissioners landed at the Tower stairs, on 
the 21st of August, and having rested at the bishop of 
London's palace two nights, were invited to the king's 
presence, at Hampton Court, on the 23rd. They came 
in state with a numerous escort, and were met at Houn- 
slow, by the beautiful young heir of England at the head 
of five hundred horsemen, attired in gorgeous but quaint 
array, having velvet coats with sleeves of cloth of gold, 
counterchanged with sleeves of velvet, richly embroidered, 
one side of the coats being embroidered velvet, coun- 
terchanged in like manner with cloth of gold on the 
other, f 

The prince, who was attended by the archbishop 
of York, his maternal uncle the earl of Hertford, and 
the young earl of Huntingdon, his school-fellow and 

* Letter of prince Edward to Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of 
queen Katharine, August 12th, 1546. England, vol. ii. 

t Stow. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 223 

kinsman, saluted and embraced the admiral of France, 
and welcomed him with winning grace, in such courteous 
and honourable manner that the beholders greatly rejoiced, 
and marvelled at his audacity and ready wit.* " Then, the 
admiral having duly responded to these civilities, the 
prince brought him on to Hampton Court, the admiral 
giving him the upper hand as they rode.f They were 
received at the great entrance gate by the lord chancellor 
and the king's council, by whom the ambassador was 
conducted to his lodgings. "J 

Ten days of royal festivities and amusements followed, 
and these were the last gaieties that ever took place in 
the court of Henry VIII. § The queen soon after had 
a narrow escape of losing her head, for venturing to 
expostulate with her capricious tyrant for prohibiting 
the translation of the New Testament, put forth by 
Tindal and Coverdale, which he had previously licensed, 
from being read, and also from having expressed opinions 
at variance with his, on matters where he desired to be 
considered infallible. || 

He had remorselessly sent her kinswoman, the beauti- 
ful, the learned, and heroic Anne Askew, and other 
martyrs of the reformed faith, to the stake, unconscious, 
meantime, that similar principles had been, through the 
salutary influence of that royal nursing mother of the 
reformation, Katharine Parr, infused into the tender 
mind of the young prince, his only son, to whom was 
reserved the glory of establishing the Anglican Church, 
which Henry had vainly opposed with fire and sword.^[ 

* Hall f Stow. by an eloquent modern writer, but 

X Ibid. facts are stubborn things. The 

§ See Life of Queen Katharine annals of the last sixteen years 

Parr, "Lives of the Queens of Eng- of his reign are written in blood, 

land," by Agnes Strickland, vol. and fully justify the assertion of 

iii., library edition. sir Walter Raleigh, "that if all 

|| Herbert's Henry VIII. Fox, the patterns of a merciless prince 

Burnet, Rapin. had been lost in the world, they 

IT Henry has recently been made might have been found in this one 

the subject of a paradoxical eulogium king." 



224 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Edward was at Hatfield in September, whence lie 
writes an affectionate letter to his " dearest preceptor," 
Dr. Richard Cox, congratulating him on his recovery 
from a dangerous illness, concluding in these words, " Do 
then take diligent care of your health, that you may soon 
return to me, for I greatly desire to see you. My dearest 
almoner, farewell.* From Hatfield also on the 27th of 
the same month, he addresses a dutiful and reverential 
letter to his royal father, and a most affectionate one to 
his sister Mary, to thank her for having written lovingly 
to him.f Edward took his first lessons in French while 
at Hatfield, which is certified by a letter, dated Oct. 12, 
from his tutor Cox to the secretary of state Paget, 
thanking him for the great care and pains he was then 
taking for the honourable establishment of the prince's 
house, who, continues he, "this day beginneth to learn 
French with a great facility, even at his first entre." 

The date of one of Edward's letters to his uncle the 
earl of Hertford proves that he was at Hunsdon on the 
8th of November, and it is probable it was there he was 
sojourning when he enjoyed the pleasure of his sister 
Elizabeth's company, } who was permitted to visit and 
spend a few days with him in the autumn. He was very 
much attached to her, and laments their separation very 
feelingly in the following pretty letter : — 

" Change of place did not vex me so much, dearest sister, as your 
going from me. Now, however, nothing can happen more agreeable 
to me than a letter from you, especially as you were the first to send 
one to me, and have challenged me to write ; wherefore I thank you 
both for your good will and despatch. I will strive to my utmost 
power if not to surpass, at least to equal you in good will and zeal. 
But this is some comfort to my grief that I hope to visit you shortly, 
if no accident intervene with either me or you, as my chamberlain 
has reported to me. Farewell, dearest sister. 

" Edwaed the Pkince. \ 

" 5th December, 1546." 

* Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of England, 
f Ibid. } Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 225 

The changes which had afflicted the young prince 
■ must have been the removal of his dearly beloved sister, 
Elizabeth, from Hunsdon to Enfield, and himself and his 
establishment to Hertford, where he was settled in 
January, when he wrote both to his sister Mary and the 
queen to thank them for their letters and new year's 
gifts. To Mary, he says : — 

" This one letter, my dearest sister, serves for two purposes, the 
one to return you thanks for your new year's gift, the other to 
satisfy my desire of writing to you. Your new year's gift was of 
that kind that I needs must set a very high value on it, on account 
of its great heauty, and much prize it because of the love of the 
giver. My fondness for writing to you is so great, that although I 
hope to visit you shortly, yet as I have leisure I can scarcely he 
satisfied with myself, unless I write to you, for T cannot but love 
ardently one by whom I find myself so much beloved. May the 
Lord Jesus keep you in^safety. 

" Your most loving brother, 

" Edwaed the Peince. 

" At Hertford , the tenth of January" * 

His royal stepmother, queen Katharine, sent him for 
a new year's gift, the united miniatures of the king 
his father and her own, probably enclosed in a jewelled 
locket, opening each way according to the fashion of the 
period. The young prince responds in a tone which proves 
both the delicacy of his mind and the pleasure with 
which he had received this token of her regard. 

" And this love," he says, " you have manifested to me by many 
kindnesses, and especially by the new year's gift which you have 
lately sent to me, wherein the king's majesty's image and your own 
is contained, expressed to the life. For it delighted me much to gaze 
upon your likenesses, though absent, whom, with the greatest 
pleasure, I would see present, and to whom I am bounden as well as 
by nature as by duty. Wherefore, I give you greater thanks for 
this new year's gift, than if you had sent me costly garments or 
embossed gold or any other costly thing. May God keep in safety 
and health your highness, whom I hope to visit shortly. | 

11 Dated at Hatfield, Uth January, 1546." 

* Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of England. f Ibid. 
15 



226 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

He writes from Hertford on the 24th, to Cranmer, whom 
he calls "most loving godfather/' to thank him for a 
cup with an inscription, wishing him many happy years. 
He acknowledges also his last letter in praise of litera- 
ture, which he assures the archbishop "had been of great 
use to him, as an incentive to acquire polite literature, 
so necessary to be learned by him."* 

Edward having attained the age of nine years in the 
preceding October, preparations were now made for 
creating him prince of Wales, earl of Chester, and earl 
of Flint. The following robes and regalia were pro- 
vided for that investiture. 

" A robe of purple velvet having in it about eighteen ells, garnished 
about with a fringe of gold and lined with ermine. A surcoat or 
inner gown, haying in it about fourteen yards of velvet of the like 
colour. Fringe, fur, laces, and tassels. Ornaments made of purple 
silk and gold. A girdle of silk to gird his under gown. A sword 
with a scabbard made of purple silk and gold garnished with the 
girdle ; he is girt withal, thereby showing him to be duke of 
Cornwall by birth, not by creation. A cap of the same velvet that 
his robe is of, furred with ermine, with laces and a button and tassels 
on the crown thereof, made of Yenice gold, (probably the delicate 
filigree gold for which Yenice is so much celebrated.) A garland or 
a little coronet of gold, to be put on his head, together with his cap. 
A ring of gold also to be put on the third finger of his left hand, to 
signify his marriage with equity and justice."f 

The sickness of the king his father, who had thus 
strangely delayed creating the rightful heir of England 
prince of Wales, rendered these tardy preparations for 
his investiture unavailing. 

The reason of Henry VIII. making up his mind, at 
last, to prepare for investing Edward with his rightful 
dignity of prince of Wales can only be attributed to the 
fact that he was now convinced that no other son would 
be born to him, whom he might, peradventure, have felt 
disposed to appoint as his successor, in preference to prince 

* Letters of the Kings of England, 
f Heylyn, p. 14. Mille's Catalogue of Honour. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



227 



Edward, in like manner as lie had superseded his eldest 
daughter in favour of her younger sister, and postponed 
both princesses to imaginary female issue by Katharine 
Parr, "or any future queen or queens it might please 
him to marry." Fortunately for his sixth consort, 
and the legitimate rights of his existing offspring, the 
royal wife-slayer was summoned to his great account, 
January 28th, 1546. He expired without creating his 
son prince of Wales, being the only sovereign of England 
since the annexation of the principality who ever left that 
duty unperformed. 




Silver font and arrangements in the chapel royal at Hamptpn Court for the christen- 
ing of Edward VI. — From the original drawing in the College of Arms. — 
See page 195. 



EDWAED THE SIXTH, 



CHAPTER II. 

Edward's acccession to the throne— Commission and council of regency— 
His uncle Hertford's intrigues to obtain the protectorship— Gets possession 
of the young king— Carries him from Hertford to Enfield— Announces 
the death of king Henry to him and his sister, Elizabeth— Grief of 
the royal children — Edward's public entry into London — His first 
homage as king-Conducted to the Tower— His proclamation— His first 
exercise of regality — His uncle makes him a knight — Edward knights 
the lord mayor— His uncle Hertford made lord protector— Edward creates 
him duke of Somerset, and creates a batch of other peers— Rides in state 
through the city to Westminster— Pageants, processions, and loyal songs— 
His coronation in Westminster Abbey — Eoyal festivities — Edward's 
personal and mental endowments— He learns to swear of an ill-disposed 
play-fellow — His instructor whipped, and himself admonished — His 
opinion of his tutors— His attention to sermons — Prayers read in 
English— Mary, queen of Scots, sought in marriage for Edward— Is 
refused— War with Scotland— Intrigues of his uncle, the lord admiral- 
Secret communications between him and Edward — Jealousy of 
Somerset— Quaint dialogue between the king and Fowler about the 
lord admiral's marriage-Lord admiral asks Edward to plead his suit 
to queen dowager, Katharine Parr — Edward's letter to her -Her 
private marriage with his uncle-Edward's journal of Scotch campaign— 
—His letter to Somerset on winning the battle of Pinkie-Fac simile 
of Edward's autograph. 

Prince Edward was at Hertford when his royal father 
breathed his last, between two and three in the morning 
of Friday, January 28th, 1547, at Whitehall. Though 
this event had been long expected, and parliament was 
sitting, the ministers and council of the deceased king 
thought proper to conceal his death nearly three days * 
King Henry had in his will appointed sixteen executors, 
to whom he consigned the guardianship and tuition of 
* Strype, Ellis, Tytler, Nichols. 






EDWARD THE SIXTH. 229 

the person of the young prince, and the government of 
the realm, during the minority of the crown. They 
were all invested with equal powers, and were to be 
assisted by the advice of a council of twelve persons, 
also appointed by himself. At the head of the list of 
the executors stood the name of the godfather of the 
young prince, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, 
followed by those of the lord chancellor Wriothesley ; 
lord St. John, the great master ; the earl of Hertford, 
the eldest maternal uncle of the prince ; the lord Russell, 
privy seal ; the viscount Lisle, afterwards earl of Warwick 
and duke of Northumberland ; sir Anthony Brown, master 
of the horse ; sir Edward Montague, chief justice of the 
court of Common Pleas ; Mr. Justice Bromley ; sir Edward 
North ; sir William Paget, chief secretary ; sir Anthony 
Denny ; sir William Herbert ; sir Edward Wotton ; and 
Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury and York. Notwith- 
standing his near relationship to the young royal suc- 
cessor, the earl of Hertford had no greater power 
confided to him than to any other of the co-executors ; 
but before the breath was out of the body of the august 
testator, he devised a plan by which he effectually frus- 
trated Henry's intentions, and with the assistance of one 
of his colleagues, sir William Paget, with whom he held 
a secret conference in the private gallery at Whitehall, 
near the chamber of the dying king, and arranged mea- 
sures for that purpose, contrived to get the supreme 
authority of the realm into his own hands. As the 
first step in his game was to possess himself of the 
person of the young sovereign, as soon as king Henry 
expired, he, without difficulty, caused the rest of the 
co-executors to depute him, with sir Anthony Brown, 
the master of the horse, to proceed to Hertford, where 
Edward then was, to announce to his highness the death 
of his royal father, and his own accession to the crown. 
This commission he did not fulfil at Hertford, though he 
rested there all night, as appears by his writing from 



230 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

thence a confidential letter to sir William Paget, the 
secretary of state, dated January 29th, between three 
and four in the morning, in reply to a secret letter he had 
received from that statesman, his confederate, between 
one and two that morning, touching the will of the late 
king, which he had locked up before he left London, on 
the preceding day, to prevent its being opened, and the 
fact known before he should have taken his measures 
effectually for the accomplishment of his ambitious 
purpose. He now sent the key of the depository in 
which he had locked up the will to Paget, in compli- 
ance with his request, and in order that this important 
document might be produced when the death of the king 
should be announced, though only such parts as they two 
deemed suitable to be published should be read. Hert- 
ford endorsed this letter with the following exordium 
to the messenger : " Haste, post haste ! Haste with all 
diligence ! For thy life, for thy life." * The next 
morning the earl and sir Anthony Brown conveyed 
the young king very quietly, and without giving him 
the slightest intimation of the important change that 
had taken place in his position, to Enfield, where his 
beloved sister, the princess Elizabeth, then was, and there 
in her presence first acquainted his highness with the 
death of the king, his father. 

The royal children received the tidings with a burst 
of grief, and to use the pretty and almost poetic 
language of sir John Hay ward, "it plainly appeared 
that good Nature did work in them beyond all other 
respects. Never was sorrow more sweetly set forth, 
their faces seeming rather to beautify their sorrow 
than their sorrow to cloud the beauty of their faces. 
Their young years, their excellent beauties, their lovely 
and lively interchange of complaints, in such sort graced 
their grief as the most iron eyes at that time present were 
drawn thereby into society of their tears." 

* State Paper Office MS. Printed in Tytler's Edward and Mary. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 231 

The remainder of that day, and all the next, 
Sunday, January 30th, young Edward was allowed to 
remain quietly with his sister at Enfield, a sweet solace 
and indulgence doubtless to them both. The same even- 
ing his uncle Hertford writes to the council in London, 
" We intend the king's majesty shall be a horsbak to- 
morrow, by eleven of the clock to-morrow, so that by 
three we trust his grace shall be at the Tower." * 

The demise of king Henry was communicated by the 
lord chancellor Wriothesley to the house of lords and 
commons, and the parliament was dissolved on the morning 
of Monday, January 31st. The proclamation of his son, 
by the title of Edward VI., was made immediately after- 
wards, by the heralds, in the palace yard of Westminster 
Hall, to a multitude of people there assembled, who all 
cried "God save king Edward." f 

In the afternoon, Edward entered the city at Aldgate, 
on horseback, with his uncle Hertford and sir Anthony 
Brown, at the head of a numerous cavalcade of his loving 
lieges, who had gone out to meet him and attend him 
into London. ^The natural sorrow he had felt and ex- 
pressed at the news of his royal father's death appears to 
have been forgotten amidst the excitement of the scene, 
in which the juvenile monarch found himself the centre 
of all eyes, and the object of universal acclamations. 
The journey, the exhilarating exercise in the open air, 
recalled the elastic spirits of childhood, and the firing of 
the guns as he approached the Tower, both from that 
fortress and the gaily decorated ships in the river, gave 
him infinite delight. :£ He entered at the Red Bulwarks, 
where he was received by sir John Gage, the constable 
of the Tower, and the lieutenant of the Tower, on horse- 
back, the earl of Hertford riding before the king, and sir 
Anthony Brown after him. § On his arrival, he was met 

* u Dated at Enfield, this Sunday night, at 11 of the clock." State Paper 
Office, MS. Domestic. 

f Strype. % Strype, Stow. § Ibid. 



232 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

and welcomed by the lord chancellor, the archbishop of 
Canterbury, and his principal officers and nobles of state, 
who conducted him to his lodgings in the Tower. These 
were all richly hung and garnished with costly arras 
and cloth of gold. Having placed their young sovereign 
under the cloth of estate or regal canopy, in his presence 
chamber, the lord chancellor read the late king's will, 
and the sixteen executors being all assembled swore to 
fulfil every article *of the same, according to the utmost 
of their power. 

On the morrow, the earl of Hertford having secured 
a majority among the sixteen commissioners, to whom 
the custody of the person of the young king, and the 
government of the realm during his nonage had been 
assigned by the will of Henry VIII., induced them, not- 
withstanding the angry protestations of the lord chancellor, 
to violate the oaths they had sworn on the preceding day, 
by vesting the supreme power in his hands, and consti- 
tuting him the protector of the king his nephew, and 
governor of the kingdom, till his majesty should attain the 
age of eighteen years. In the afternoon* Edward was 
conducted by his two uncles, Hertford and sir Thomas Sey- 
mour, the lord admiral, into his presence chamber, and 
placed beneath the royal canopy, before his chair of state, 
where all his prelates and peers were assembled to receive 
and offer him their homage. Each approached according 
to precedence of rank, knelt and kissed the hand of the 
youthful sovereign in turn, crying, " Grod save your 
grace ! " Then the lord chancellor explained the will of 
the late king, and the resolution of the rest of the 
executors to confide the protectorship, both of the king 
and his realm, to the earl of Hertford. " There is none 
so meet in all the realm for it as he," responded the 
lords * Hertford returned his acknowledgments in a 
suitable speech, and the lords promised they would be 
ready at all times, with all their might and power, for 
* MS. College of Arms, Lingard, Nichols, Burnet, Strype, Stow. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 233 

the defence of the realm and the king, concluding with 
the unanimous acclamation of " God save the noble king 
Edward.'' The monarch of nine years old responded to 
this enthusiastic burst of loyal affection with ready 
grace and intelligence by raising his cap, and saying, 
" We heartily thank y6u, my lords all, and hereafter in 
all ye shall have to do with us, in any suit or causes, ye 
shall be heartily welcome."* 

Edward's first essay in the regal office having been 
thus successfully accomplished, to the admiration of his 
court, the peers temporal attended at the Star Chamber 
the next morning, and took their oaths of allegiance to 
their fair young sovereign. On the following Sunday, 
February 6th, his uncle, the protector, being authorized 
by the privy council, the king's letters patent under the 
great seal, to do so, knighted the young king with great 
solemnity, in the presence of his nobles, officers of state, 
judges, Serjeants of law, and the lord mayor, sheriffs, 
and aldermen of the city of London, a special court 
being held for that purpose, to which they had all been 
summoned, to kiss his majesty's hand. At their 
humble petition, he confirmed all their charters and 
ancient privileges. Then standing up under the royal 
canopy, Edward took the sword with which he had just 
received the accolade of honour from his uncle, the lord 
protector, and knighted the lord mayor, Henry Hubble- 
thorne, with his own hand, and afterwards William 
Portman, one of the judges of the King's Bench, and 
after receiving their thanks touched his cap in acknow- 
ledgment, and retired to his privy chamber, f 

Edward's next occupation was to write a letter to his 
widowed stepmother, queen Katharine, condoling with 
hereon their mutual cause of grief, the death of his 
royal father and her husband, their most illustrious 
sovereign." This letter being written in Latin, and made 
up of declamatory eulogiums on the virtuous, holy, and 

* Stow. t Kegister of the Privy Council ; Stowe ; Nichols. 



234 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

learned life and righteous government of the defunct 
king, must be regarded as the composition of his tutors, 
rather than the natural effusion of a young warm-hearted 
boy, little more than nine years of age. He requests her, 
however, "to moderate her sorrow in the certainty of the 
everlasting happiness at present enjoyed by his noble 
father in heaven," and tells her "that his grateful remem- 
brance of the many benefits he has received from her 
renders it his duty to offer her all the comfort he can." 
This letter is dated " From the Tower, 7th of February, 
1546 (7)," and signed, " Edward the King."* He writes 
to his sister Mary on the 8th, in a similar strain, and also 
to Elizabeth, in reply to one she had written to him, 
expressive of "her resignation for the bereavement they 
had both sustained," coinciding in the same pious senti- 
ments.f 

The funeral of the deceased king was solemnised on 
the 14th of February, with unwonted splendour, after 
the remains had lain in state for several days, during 
which prayers for the repose of his soul had been loudly 
demanded of all passers by the heralds ; but joy for the 
accession of the fair and hopeful young prince, his son, 
was the prevailing sentiment of the people. Henry 
VIII. was interred in St. George's chapel, at Windsor, 
by the body of his favourite queen, Jane Seymour, 
Edward's mother. After the officers of state had broken 
their staves £ and hurled them into the grave, Garter king 
at arms proclaimed the new sovereign with a loud voice, 
and was answered by the simultaneous shout of the 
assistant heralds, and poursuivants, " Vive le noble roy 
Edward VI. ! " in which the spectators enthusiastically 
joined, and the trumpet sounded with great courage 
and melody, to the comfort of all present.§ 

* Halliwell's Letters of the Kings of England. f Nichols. 

X In his journal Edward naively § Stowe. MS. College of Arms, 

adds, when describing this ceremonial, printed in Literary Remains of 
li But they had others given them/' King Edward VI. by Nichols. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 235 

Four days after the funeral of his royal father had 
been solemnized Edward was required to exercise his 
regal power, by personally elevating his uncle, the 
protector, to the dignity of duke of Somerset ; the queen 
dowager's brother, William Parr, earl of Essex, to that 
of marquis of Northampton ; John Dudley, viscount Lisle, 
to that of earl of Warwick, and to make the lord chan- 
cellor, Wriothesley, earl of Southampton ; sir Richard 
Rich, sir William Willoughby, and sir Edward Sheffield, 
barons. At the same time he created his uncle, sir 
Thomas Seymour, baron Seymour of Sudeley, and deli- 
vered to him a patent by which he conferred upon him 
the office of lord high admiral of England. The 
juvenile monarch invested all these peers with their 
mantles, girded them with their swords, and placed their 
coronets on their heads with his own hands, aided by his 
uncle the protector, who, as soon as he had received his 
patent and insignia from his majesty and returned thanks, 
stood beside him to render his assistance in the accom- 
plishment of this unwonted labour. The king also 
delivered the patent and white staff of great chamber- 
lain of England, and restored the staves of their offices 
to the lord St. John, great master of the household, 
sir Thomas Cheyne, lord warden of the same, and sir 
John Gage, comptroller. This done, his little majesty 
withdrew to his privy chamber, and the newly created 
peers and their assistants proceeded in great state to 
dinner in the council chamber, with the trumpets blowing 
before them. At the second course the Somerset herald 
proclaimed all their titles, because Garter king of arms 
was hoarse. After dinner they waited on the king to 
kiss his hand, and thank him for the honours he had 
conferred. The same afternoon, about three o'clock, the 
king held a chapter of the Garter in his closet with the 
knights of the order, into which he was himself received 
that day as the sovereign of the order ; the newly made 
duke of Somerset, his uncle, investing him with the 



236 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

mantle, collar, ribband, and George, and buckling the 
garter about his majesty's leg. Edward's other uncle 
the lord admiral, and several new knights, were admitted 
into the fraternity the same day.* 

The next day, Saturday, February 19th, at one o'clock 
in the afternoon, the young sovereign, more fortunate than 
the last king of his name who had lodged within those 
ominous walls, left the Tower to make his state procession 
through the city to his coronation at Westminster. He 
was arrayed in a gown of cloth of silver, embroidered 
and damasked with gold, having a girdle of white velvet 
wrought with Venice silver, the delicate frosted silver 
filigree work, for the manufacture of which Venice has 
has always been famed. This appears to have been 
the setting of the diamonds and rubies and true-love 
knots of pearls, with which the girdle was encircled. 
His doublet was also of white velvet, decorated 
in like manner with Venice silver, diamonds, rubies, 
and true-love knots of pearls, a white velvet cap 
to correspond, and white velvet buskins on his legs. 
His horse was caparisoned with crimson satin, embroi- 
dered with pearls and damasked with gold. A state 
canopy, supported by six knights, accompanied him, 
but he rode a little before it, that the people might see 
him the better. A lovely and touching spectacle, that 
beautiful and gracious boy, in whom the hopes of Eng- 
land were centred, decked at his tender age in the glitter- 
ing trappings of regality, and on his way to the abbey 
where he was on the morrow to be consecrated to the 
sacred office of Grod's vicegerent, and sworn to fulfil 
the duties and responsibilities attached to that high 
vocation. His uncle, the protector Somerset, rode at the 
king's left hand, a step in the rear. The streets had been 
carefully cleansed, swept, and strewn with fresh gravel, to 
prevent the horses from slipping, we are told, which, as 

* College of Arms, MS. printed valuable compilation, Literary Re- 
, and collated by J. G-. Nichols, in his mains of King Edward VI. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 2^7 

it was the 19tli of February, indicates that it was snowy 
and frosty weather, not unfrequent at that season of tlio 
year. The line by which the royal procession was to 
pass was railed off, on one side, from Gracechurch street 
to the little conduit in Cheapside. 

At the conduit in Cornhill there was a goodly pageant 
hung with arras, and a fountain which played with sweet 
wine. Round it was stationed a band of vocal and instru- 
mental music, and two fair children richly arrayed, who 
recited in turn a poetical address to the king. The first 
four lines may serve as a specimen : 

" Hail, noble Edward, our king and soveraigne ! 
Hail, the chief comfort of our commonalty, 
Hail, redolent rose, whose sweetness to retain 
Is unto us such great eomodity." * 

More worthy of attention, * though the numbers be 
rude, is the chorus song which followed, and is sup- 
posed to be the original of our national lyric, " Grod 
save the king." 

11 King Edward, king Edward ! 
God save king Edward ! 
God save king Edward ! 
And long to continue 
In grace and vertu, 
Unto God's pleasure, 
His Commons to rejoice, 
Whom we ought to honour, 
To love and to dread. 



Good Lord, in heaven to thee we sing, 
Grant our noble king to reign and spring, 
Whom God preserve in peace and war, 
And safely to keep him from danger." t 

« 
As the royal procession passed through Cheapside, in 

* MS. College of Arms, printed in Nichols' Appendix. 
f Ibid. 



238 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

goodly order, the young king's attention was called to 
the pageant at the great conduit there, at the entrance 
of which stood two persons, representing Valentine and 
Orson, Orson being dressed in moss and leaves, with 
a great club of yew tree for his weapon, and Yalentine 
clad in armour as a knight, both addressed loyal 
rhymes to Edward, promising to defend him from all 
rebels. At one end of the conduit the imitation of a 
rock had been erected, garnished with gilliflowers, and 
other kinds of flowers, artificial of course, as it was 
mid winter. On the rock was a sumptuous fountain 
surmounted with a crown imperial of gold, richly 
decorated with imitations of pearls and gems. Under 
this were springs, out of which flowed abundance 
of red wine and claret, descending through pipes into 
the street among the people, who, for the space of six 
hours, fetched it away with great diligence. Near the 
fountain stood four children, richly adorned, person- 
ating Grace, Nature, Fortune, and Charity. Each of these 
addressed the king in turn, in complimentary verses. 
Beyond them stood Sapience, with the seven liberal 
sciences, all represented by richly apparelled ladies, who 
addressed goodly speeches to the young monarch in turn. 
The last speaker, Astronomy, explained to him in rhyme 
the device at the other end of the conduit, where there 
rose two scaffolds, one above the other, hung with cloth 
of gold, silk, and rich arras. The upper represented 
heaven, with the sun, stars, and clouds "very naturally." 
From these clouds another lesser cloud of white, fringed 
with silk, and surrounded with stars, and beams of gold 
spread abroad, out of which descended a phoenix, the 
emblem of the king's mother, Jane Seymour, down to 
the nether scaffold, where, as she seated herself upon a 
mount, there spread forth roses white and red, gilliflowers, 
and hawthorn boughs. Then came a lion of gold crowned, 
making semblance of amity to the phoenix, moving his 
head and bowing to her sundry times, after which 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 239 

familiarity came forth a young lion, which had an im- 
perial crown brought him, as if from heaven above, by 
two angels, who set it upon his head. Then the old lion 
and the phoenix vanished away, leaving the young lion 
crowned and alone. These are the only lines worthy 
of quotation in the metrical explanation of this quaint 
allegory : 

1 ' For the phoenix bright, 
That down taketh her flight 
From the clouds above, 
Is for to behold 
That lion of gold, 
Who long was her love. 

And also for to see 
Your kingly majesty, 
Prosperously to reign, 
From the throne celestial, 
With diadem imperial, 
Is she come hither again. 

To have your highness crowned, 
Her most dearly beloved ; 
And then to ascend upright, 
From whence she came, above, 
To Christ her special love, 
Where is no darkness but light. " 

On the nether scaffold was a child about the king's 
age, royally robed, to represent him, seated on a sump- 
tuous throne, which was upheld by four other children, 
personifying Eegality, Justice, Truth, and Mercy, who 
each addressed an appropriate sentiment to the youthful 
monarch as he passed. Towards the Chepe, behind the 
throne, the golden fleece, one of the sources of English 
wealth, was kept by two bulls and a serpent, casting 
flames out of their mouths ; six children richly apparelled 
playing on regals, sung with great melody divers goodly 
songs. At the standard at the Chepe, which was richly 
hung and decorated, were trumpets blowing melodiously, 



240 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

and a person, it does not say whether lady or gentleman, 
intended to represent England, prepared to recite a 
speech, recommending the young king to' imitate the 
example of his royal father, Henry VIII., and tread in 
his steps, but because his grace past too speedily to hear 
it, in which he certainly had no loss, printed copies were 
set upon the hangings, and cast abroad among the pro- 
cession. A little beyond the cross in Cheapside, the lord 
mayor and aldermen of the city of London, in their 
seemly apparel, were waiting to receive the king, to 
whom they made a loyal address, by master Broke their 
recorder, and presented his grace with a purse containing 
a thousand marks in gold, which he graciously received, 
and gave them thanks. On the other side stood priests 
with their assistant clerks, holding their crosses and 
censers, to cense the king as he passed, and on both 
sides the way the windows and walls were hung with 
arras, tapestry, and cloth of gold and tissue, and 
garnished with flags and streamers, as richly as might 
be devised. 

The next station for music and pageantry was the 
little conduit in Chepe, which was hung with arras, gar- 
nished with a target of St. George, the king's arms, six 
great streamers, and twenty banners. The waits stood 
playing in a tower which had been erected above it, and 
there, in a chair of state, apparelled in gown of cloth 
of gold, with a crown upon his head, a sceptre in his 
right hand, and in his left an orb with a cross, sat a 
representation of Edward the Confessor, who was Regarded 
as the king's patron saint. But the young king, either 
because he began to get tired, or was inspired with a 
desire of discountenancing the veneration of saints, vouch- 
safed no attention to him, and passed on too speedily to 
listen, either to his verses or to a florid address , St. 
George, on horseback, was prepared to recite to him 
first in Latin, and then in halting English heroics, con- 
cluding with these lines : 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 241 

" I shall in field for thy defence set forth my banner, 
And deliver thee from hurt, damage, or any danger, 
Against thy foes which shall stir debate or strife, 
And thus farewell, king Edward, God send thee long life." * 

"Howbeit," pursues the quaint chronicler of those faites 
and gestes, which the good city of London had prepared 
to delight her juvenile sovereign, "there was a song 
whereof the ditty was thus : 

" Sing up heart, sing up heart ! and sing no more down, 
But joy in king Edward that weareth the crown ; 
When he waxeth wight, and to manhood doth spring, 
He shall then straight be of fourf realms the king. 

" Ye children of England, for honour of the same, 
Take bow shaft in hand, and learn shootage to frame ; 
That you another day, may so do your parts, 
To serve your good king well, with hands and with hearts. 

" Ye children that be toward, sing up and not down, 
And never play the coward to him that weareth the crown ; 
But always do your care his pleasure to fulfil, 
Then you shall keep right safe the honour of England still." 

To a right merry tune this national lyric, however 
rugged in metre, might have had a lively and inspiriting 
effect. The spectacle which appeared to interest the 
royal boy more than all the classical, allegorical, and 
historical pageants which had been at such great expense 
prepared for his edification, was the performance of a 
Spanish rope-dancer, who, when his majesty entered St. 
Paul's churchyard on the south side, descended from a rope 
which was stretched from the spire of the cathedral down 
to the deanery gate, and there made fast to an anchor, 

* Ibid. 

f England, Ireland, France, and of Scotland, for Edward's union with 

Scotland, the third of course only the infant sovereign of Scotland, 

titular, the last claimed under pre- Mary Stuart. See lt Lives of the 

tence of the matrimonial treaty that Queens of Scotland,'* by Agnes 

had been concluded in 1543, by the Strickland, vol. iii, Life of Mary 

late king, his father, and the regent Stuart. 
16 



242 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

and without using apparently either hands or legs, glided 
down on his breast like an arrow from a bow, and when 
he reached the ground he came to the king, and kissed 
his majesty's foot, and after addressing a compliment to 
him, departed and went up the rope again, and played a 
variety of feats, to the great delight of the king, who 
tarried with all his train a good while to behold them.* 

At Fleet Street, Temple Bar, and all the convenient 
places along the line of the procession, pageants and 
music were stationed, till the king arrived at his royal 
palace at Westminster, where all the nobles who had pre- 
ceded him in goodly order having already arrived, stood 
ready to receive him when he alighted, and at the hall 
door he took his leave of the foreign ambassadors, 
who had paid him the compliment of accompanying the 
procession, giving them thanks for their pains. f 

It is supposed that Edward slept that night at White- 
hall, because he came the next morning to Westminster 
Hall by water, accompanied by his uncle, the "lord pro- 
tector, and others of his council and privy chamber, with 
three barges full of noblemen, and about nine in the 
morning landed at the privy stairs, where the pensioners, 
apparelled in red damask, holding their poll-axes, and the 
guard, in their rich coats, with their halberds, were stand- 
ing on either side, forming a lane for him to pass through. 
Then, with all his nobles preceding him, he was brought 
into the Court of Augmentations, and arrayed in his 
parliamentary robes, having a black velvet cap on his 
head. The great hall at Westminster had been newly 
painted and glazed, well strewn with fresh green rushes 
for the occasion, and hung with rich arras, the upper 
end, above the stairs, well incarpeted, and all the way 
from the king's seat-royal in the hall, unto the mount 
where his throne was placed in the abbey, was spread 
with blue say cloth, which had been brought from his 
great wardrobe. 

* Stow. f Nichols' Appendix. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 243 

The crown was borne in the procession before the 
king by the duke of Somerset, the orb by the duke 
of Suffolk, the sceptre by the marquis of Dorset. 
The king walked under a goodly carjopy borne by the 
barons of the Cinque-Portes. The earl of Shrewsbury 
walked on his right hand, and the bishop of Durham 
on his left, his train being borne by the earl of 
Warwick, assisted by queen Katharine's brother, Parr, 
marquis of Northampton, and lord Seymour of Sudeley. 

While the procession of regalia bearers was forming, 
the young king desired an explanation of the three swords 
of state that were to be borne before him. They told 
him "the pointless sword, called Curtana, was the sword 
of mercy, and the other two were the swords of justice, 
one for the temporal, the other for the spiritual estate/' 
"That," replied Edward, "should be represented by the 
Bible, which is the sword of the spirit."* 

The abbey had been prepared for the solemnity with 
a raised stage built before the altar, on which was 
placed the throne, a great white chair, approached by 
seven richly carpeted stairs, and covered with fine 
baudekin, damask, and gold, with two cushions, one of 
black velvet, richly embroidered with gold, the other of 
cloth of tissue. The said chair had two pillars, and at 
the back two gold lions, and in the centre a turret with a 
flower de luce of gold. The choir of the abbey was 
hung with rich arras and well strewn with rushes. 

The royal procession entered between ten and eleven 
o'clock, and the king was conducted to St. Edward's 
chair, where, after he had reposed a little, he was seated 
by his lords in a light portable chair, covered with rich 
cloth of tissue, wherein he was elevated by his four 
gentlemen ushers and carried to the four sides of the 
stage, that he might be seen by the people, to whom 
the archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer, standing beside 
the chair, presented him in these words : — 

* Bale's Life of King Edward VI ; Planche's Chapters on Coronations. 



244 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

" Sirs, here present is Edward, rightful and undoubted 
inheritor by the laws of God and man of the crown and 
royal dignity of this realm, wherefore ye shall understand 
that this day is prefixed and appointed by all the peers 
of this realm for the consecration, inunction, and corona- 
tion of the said tnost excellent prince Edward. Will ye 
serve at this time and give your wills and assents to the 
same ? " 

"Yea, yea, yea! Glod save king Edward! "was the 
unanimous response of the people in a loud voice. 

Then the king was conveyed in the said chair by the 
gentlemen ushers before the high altar, where he offered 
up his pall of baudekin and twenty shillings ; after that 
he was laid prostrate on a velvet cushion before the altar, 
while certain orisons were said over him, and the sacra- 
ments were displayed ; then the coronation oath was 
administered to him, and again he prostrated himself 
before the altar while Veni Creator was sung. After he 
was anointed by the archbishop, and the regalia conse- 
crated, he was placed in Edward the Confessor's chair 
before the high altar. "• The archbishop crowned him, 
placing first the ancient diadem of Edward the Confessor 
on his head ; then, after removing that, the richly jewelled 
crown of the realm ; and, thirdly, a crown which had been 
made of a suitable size for .him to wear.* Between 
each remove the trumpets flourished; then Te Deum 
was sung, the coronation ring was placed on his marriage 
finger ; the bracelets, spurs, sceptres, and orb were 
delivered, and the enthronization took place. 

Edward had probably been over fatigued on the pre- 
ceding day, for great care was taken to spare him from 
personal exertion by having him borne by his four ushers 
in a chair whenever it was necessary for him to change 

* This interesting relic of the old gold, together with the crown 

first protestant king of England of Edward the Confessor, and the 

was remorselessly broken np and time - honoured robes and regalia 

sold by the commissioners of the of the kings and queens of Eng- 

puritan parliament for the price of land. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 245 

his place. The coronation service had been considerably 
abridged and modified by Cranmer, both on account of 
the tender age of the king and also to meet the more 
enlightened views which had taken place in England 
since the days of Edward the Confessor. The mass was, 
however, retained, and Cranmer himself, who crowned his 
royal godson, officiated at the altar. The truly objection- 
able ceremony of kissing the pax was retained, the image 
being handed to the young king for that purpose, who, in 
complying, acted of course according to the instructions 
he received. Moreover, the peers' homage was prefaced 
by the slavish and humiliating act of kissing the king's 
foot.* If this were not indeed a modern interpolation in 
the solemnity, it certainly ought to have been abrogated 
among other observances which were considered as 
savouring of idolatry. It is only right to quote the 



" After all the lords had kneeled down and kissed his 
grace's right foot, and after held their hands between his 
grace's hands, and kissed his grace's left cheek, and so did 
their homage, then began a mass of the Holy Ghost by 
my lord of Canterbury, with good singing in the choir 
and organs playing. Then at offering time his grace 
offered at the altar a pound of gold, a loaf of bread, and 
a chalice of wine."f 

Instead of a sermon, Cranmer delivered an exhortation 
to the young king, chiefly against the assumptions of 
the pope, denying his authority over the sovereigns of 
England, and requiring his majesty " like Josiah to see 
God truly worshipped and idolatry destroyed, the tyranny 
of the bishop of Rome banished, and images destroyed." 
He was also required " to administer justice impartially, 
reward virtue, and punish vice. "J 

A general pardon was proclaimed to all offenders, with 
only six exceptions. The duke of Norfolk, cardinal Pole, 

* Strype's Memorials of archbishop Cranmer, yol. i, p. 203. f Ibid, 
X Ibid. 



246 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

the earl of Devonshire son of the unfortunate marquis 
of Exeter, were the most important. 

Medals were struck and distributed for the first time at 
the coronation of Edward VI, 

When the royal solemnity was accomplished, the king, 
wearing his purple robes furred with miniver, and his 
crown, left the abbey with his train, having his canopy of 
state borne over him as before, and so passed into the old 
palace of Westminster, where he reposed a little in the 
Chamber of Augmentations; "and so/' records the 
juvenile monarch in his journal of the events of that 
memorable day, " was brought to the hall to dinner on 
Shrove Sunday, where he sat with the crown on his 
head, with the archbishop of Canterbury and the lord 
protector ; and all the lords sat at boards in the hall 
beneath, and the lord marshal deputy for my lord of 
Somerset was lord marshal, and rode about the hall to 
make room. Then came in sir John Dymock, champion, 
and made his challenge, and so the king drunk to 
him, and he had the cup. At night the king returned 
to his palace at Whestmuster, where there were jousts 
and barriers, and afterwards order was taken, for 
all his servants being with his father and ■ him 
being prince, and the ordinary and unordinary were 
appointed/'* 

The coronation of our young bachelor king lacked that 
great attraction, the presence of ladies, and was in con- 
sequence not so beneficial to trade, as the purchase and 
preparation of dresses for the use and decoration of 
the female aristocracy would have rendered it to the 
mercers, jewellers, embroiderers, sempstresses, and tailors 
of London. 

The exclusion of the fair sex was the more remark - 

* This interesting document is pre- Reformation, and by Nichols, with 
served among the choice MSS., British very valuable motes, in his Liter- 
Museum, under glass case. Has been ary Remains of King Edward VI. 
printed in Burnett's History of the Printed by the Roxburgh Club. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 247 

able, as all the heirs in the line of the regal succes- 
sion were females, with the exception of the infant 
son of. the lady Margaret countess of Lennox, Henry 
lord Darnley, the young king and he being the only 
men children of the royal blood of Tudor. But neither 
the king's sisters, his cousins, the lady Margaret 
countess of Lennox, the lady Frances marchioness of 
Dorset, nor the other princesses of the Suffolk line of 
Tudor, were permitted to appear, although they would 
have formed a goodly procession. There were also the 
two royal widows of the late king, the queen dowager 
Katharine Parr, and Edward's other step-mother the 
lady Anne of Cleves ; the duchess of Somerset, wife of 
the lord protector, his uncle ; and several of his maternal 
aunts, sisters of the late queen his mother, Jane 
Seymour, who might have been expected to walk on 
this occasion. Perhaps the difficulty of settling their 
claims of precedency baffled the protector and privy 
council, and it was considered most prudent to dis- 
pense with their presence altogether ; as they did 
not appear, no other ladies could, without disrespect to 
them. 

Garter king of arms, with his assistants, presented 
themselves before the king's table while he was at dinner, 
and with loud voice made proclamation of "the most high, 
most puissant, and most excellent prince, and victorious 
king, Edward, by the grace of God king of England, 
France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, supreme head 
of the Church of England, and sovereign of the most noble 
order of the Garter," finishing with the customary cry, 
"Largess, largess, largess." After making proclamation 
in two other places in the hall, they partook of the dinner 
that had been prepared for them at the upper end of the 
hall. 

When the king had dined, wafers and hippocras were 
brought to him ; then the surnap was drawn, and the 
table, which was a board on tressels, taken up, and 



248 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

water was brought for his hands. Edward having 
performed his ablutions standing, walked into the centre 
of the hall, and stood there with the archbishop, 
the duke of Somerset, and all his nobles about him. 
Then was brought to his highness a goodly voyde* 
of spices and confections, of which he partook. The lord 
mayor brought wine to the king in a golden cup, from 
which his majesty drank, and then gave him the cup. 
Lastly, the young sovereign knighted forty-one noblemen 
and gentlemen, who were nominated to receive the order 
of the Bath-*; but because the time would not admit of 
their going through all the ceremonies requisite for that 
purpose, received this honour in lieu thereof. Edward 
then withdrew into the Court of Augmentation, and was 
relieved from his regal trappings. The nobles having also 
put off their robes, mounted their horses, and conveyed 
their young sovereign in goodly order to his palace of 
Whitehall, where was great feasting and goodly cheer 
that night. 

On the morrow, Monday, February 21st, royal jousts 
were held, the king's uncle, the lord admiral, being the 
principal of the six challengers, and the marquis of 
Northampton of the twenty-four defenders. The jousts 
began at one o'clock in the afternoon, and the king, with 
the lord protector, and other noblemen, were in the 
gallery to see the same, which was right nobly done, 
without any accident either to horse or man. At 
night they had a goodly supper at the lord admiral's 
house. 

The following day being Shrove Tuesday, the king 
dubbed sixty knights in the morning ; in the afternoon 
he witnessed a renewal of the tourney, and ordained a 
goodly banquet at the court, at which both challengers 
and defenders were feasted ; and after the festivities were 
over, " there was a goodly interlude played in the palace 
hall, on a raised stage, with the story of Orpheus, right 
* A large tray, still called in some parts of England a voider. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 249 

cunningly composed. At which play, the king, with 
many of his nobles and gentlemen, were present/'* 

The solemn fast of Ash Wednesday occurring next day, 
caused a suspension of these exciting scenes of royal 
pageantry and pleasure. The young king attended divine 
service on the morning of that day, according to the usual 
custom, and reverently bowed his head to receive the 
shower of ashes with which the officiating prelate, Ridley, 
besprinkled him, pronouncing as he did so the admonitory 
words to the recently anointed monarch, Memento homo 
quia cinis est et in cinirum reverteris — " Remember, man, 
that of ashes thou art come, and to ashes shalt thou 
retui , n.' , f t 

With the exception of Henry VI. , Edward was the 
youngest prince ever crowned king of England, being at 
that time only nine years four months and eight days of 
age ; but his acquirements were, as has been shown, most 
extraordinary. These, observes one of the most eloquent 
of his numerous historians, "were exceedingly enriched 
and enlarged by many excellent endowments of nature ; 
for in disposition he was mild, gracious, and pleasant ; of 
a heavenly wit ; in body beautiful, but especially in his 
eyes, which seemed to have a starry liveliness and lustre 
in them. "J 

The love for learning, which commenced at a very early 
period of Edward's life, did not diminish after he found 
himself a crowned and anointed king ; but steadily pur- 
suing the scholastic career he had so successfully entered, 
he made it a rule to sequester himself from his playmates 
and fellow-students, and retire, in order to avoid all 
temptation to inattention, into some chamber or gallery 
to learn his lessons without book, with great alacrity 

* MS. College of Arms, printed in Nichols* Appendix. 

f This was the last time the office J Sir John Hayward's Life and 

of ashes, as it was termed, was Reign of King Edward VI. ; "White 

administered, for it was abolished in Kennet's Complete History of Eng- 

the second year of Edward's reign. land. 



250 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

and cheerfulness. If he spent more time in play than 
he considered expedient, he would say, "We forgot 
ourselves : we should not lose the substantia for the 
accident."* 

One day, when he was essaying to get something from 
a shelf in his playroom, which he was not tall enough to 
reach, one of his young associates proffered him a large 
Bible, with thick brass bosses on the covers, to stand on, 
but Edward sternly reproved him for treating that sacred 
book, which contained the precious word of God, with 
such irreverence as to put it to so unworthy a use as 
trampling it under foot. Then, raising it from the 
ground, he wiped away the dust with his robe, kissed 
it, and placed it on a velvet cushion near his chair of 
state, f 

William Thomas, afterwards clerk of the council, and 
employed in preparing the replies delivered by the young 
king to addresses on matters of business, speaks of him in 
the most enthusiastic terms of admiration. " If ye knew," 
he says, " the towardness of that young prince, your heart 
would melt to hear him named and your stomach abhor 
the malice of them that wold him ill, the beauteousest 
creature that liveth under the sun ; the wittiest, the most 
amiable, and the gentlest thing of all the world. Such a 
spirit of capacity, learning the things taught him by his 
schoolmasters, that it is a wonder to hear say. And, 
finally, he hath such a grace of port, and gesture in 
gravity, when he cometh into any presence, that it should 
seem he were already a father, and yet passeth he not the 
age of ten years. A thing undoubtedly much rather to 
be seen than believed/'^ 

In short, the good-boyism of the young king appears to 
have been almost supernatural, considering whose son he 
was, and the flattering homage with which he had been 

* Foxe. f Fuller's Church History; Burnet; Foxe. 

X MS. Cotton Vespasian, d. xviii, Edward VI. Printed for the Rox~ 
f. 19. Literary Remains of King burgh Club. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 251 

surrounded from his cradle. Yet the following fact, which 
has been recorded by an impartial witness, the ambassador 
of the duke of Cleves,* goes far to prove that Edward was 
a genuine Tudor, and by no means exempt from the faults 
incidental to children of his age. Very soon after his 
accession to the throne, he was persuaded by one of his 
playfellows that swearing was suitable to the dignity of a 
crowned head, probably calling to his recollection, as 
a case in point, how much the late king, his father, was 
addicted to that practice. So on every opposition to his 
royal will, the juvenile monarch startled his attendants 
and companions by the utterance of thundering oaths and 
angry expletives. When required by his preceptors to 
explain how he had acquired such sinful and profane 
language, he confessed the truth, and the culprit being 
sent for, received a severe whipping in his majesty's 
presence, who was duly admonished by his preceptor that 
he deserved a similar infliction as the punishment of the 
offence of which he had been guilty. 

The learned Roger Ascham, schoolmaster to the 
princess Elizabeth, and a friend of Mr. Cheke, was occa- 
sionally employed to give Edward lessons in writing, not 
we should suppose the mechanical art of penmanship, 
which the royal youth had acquired at a very tender 
age, as his letters offer good proof, but in the higher 
and more important department of English composition. 
"Many a time/' says Ascham, "by mine especial good 
master Mr. Cheke's means I have been called to teach 
the king to write in his privy chamber, at which times his 
grace would oft most gently promise me 'one day to 
do me good/ and I would say, ' Nay, your majesty 
soon will forget me when I shall be absent from you/ 
' which thing/ he said, 'he would never do.'"f 

Edward would say of his tutors, "that Randolph 

♦Conrad Heresbach, ambassador to the Court of England, 1547. 

f Letter of Roger Ascham to sir Nichols in his Biographical Memoir 
William Cecil ; cited by J. G. of King Edward VI. 



252 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

the German spake honestly, sir John Cheke talked 
merrily, Dr. Cox solidly, and sir Anthony Cooke, 
wittingly."* Of Ascham he gives no opinion, yet he 
evidently was grateful for his instructions, and took 
pleasure in his company. 

In the court and council of the young king the favourers 
of the reformation were decidedly in the majority, but the 
lord chancellor Wriothesley headed a strong party, who 
were determined to uphold the Church of Rome, to which 
the king's eldest sister, the princess Mary, the heiress pre- 
sumptive of the crown, adhered. Wriothesley was, how- 
ever, for a breach of etiquette in performing the duties of 
his office, deprived of the seals and imprisoned. Gardiner 
bishop of Winchester, and Bonner bishop of London, were 
also suspended and imprisoned for resisting some of the 
alterations, which were gradually and very cautiously 
introduced by Cranmer into the church. All Lent, the 
young king attended the services of the church punctually, 
and listened with edifying attention to the sermons 
preached by his chaplains, taking notes of such passages 
as particularly pleased him. He was at Greenwich, on 
Palm Sunday, Passion week, and Easter, and performed 
the accustomed ceremonies on Maunday Thursday of 
washing the feet of twelve poor old men, to each of 
whom he gave a gown and tenpence in a purse. On 
the Easter Monday he sent for them again, and gave them 
each twenty shillings in a purse to redeem the gown he 
wore at the Maunday, which should have been given 
amongst them. As his majesty was but a little fellow, 
we fancy the old men were well compensated for the loss 
of his gown. 

At Easter, evening prayers were said or sung in 
English for the first time. A petition was soon after 
added to the bidding prayer, directing people to pray 
"that it would please God to accomplish a marriage 
between king Edward and the young queen of Scotland, 

* Fuller. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 253 

for the happy union of their realms" The royal bride, 
who was thus earnestly desired for our young bachelor 
king, had only just completed her fourth year.* But 
while these aspirations for the premature wedlock of 
our fair young bachelor king in his tenth year, with his 
cousin the maiden sovereign of Scotland, Mary Stuart,f 
were presented to his loyal lieges in every parish 
church in England, his assistance was earnestly sought 
by his uncle, Thomas Seymour, the lord admiral, to 
smooth the difficulties of the matrimonial engagement he 
had presumed to contract with the queen dowager, 
Katharine Parr. 

The shortness of the time since king Henry's death, and 
the jealousy of Seymour's eldest brother, the protector . 
Somerset, of queen Katharine's well known influence 
with her royal stepson, prescribed great caution in de- 
claring the marriage. The once familiar intercourse 
between the king and Katharine had been barred by 
Somerset, so that she had no opportunity of interesting his 
kind young heart in her love affairs, in order to induce him 
to recommend her to bestow the fourth reversion of her 
hand on his handsome uncle, with whom she had been on 
the point of marriage at the time that king Henry signi- 
fied his intention of making her his queen. £ All private 
access to his royal nephew being in like manner denied to 
the lord admiral, he resorted to the expedient of carrying 
on a secret communication by means of John Fowler, one 
of his personal attendants. The admiral had apartments 
in St. James's Palace, and one day, while Edward was 
residing there, in April or May, called Fowler into his 
chamber and said, " Now, Mr. Fowler, how doth the 
king's majesty?" "Well, thanks to God," was the 

* See Life of Mary Stuart, " Lives Strickland, vol. iii; and Life of 

of the Queens of Scotland," by Mary of Lorraine, vol. ii. 

Agnes Strickland, vol. iii, 3rd % ^ife °f 0< uee n Katharine Parr, 

edition. "Lives of Queens of England," by 

f See Life of Mary Stuart, " Lives Agnes Strickland, vol. iii, Library 

of Queens of Scotland," by Agnes edition. 



254 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

reply. " Doth his highness lack anything ? " asked the 
admiral. Fowler said, "Nothing." Then the admiral 
inquired "whether the king asked for him in his absence." 
Fowler said "his highness sometimes did." "But doth 
he ask questions about me?" demanded the admiral. 
" Why, what questions should his majesty ask about you ?" 
said Fowler. " Nay, nothing," rejoined the admiral, "only 
sometimes his highness would ask why I married not." 
" I never heard him ask any such questions," returned 
Fowler. 

The admiral, after a brief pause, said, " Mr. Fowler, I 
pray you if you have any communication with the king's 
majesty soon or to-morrow, ask his grace whether he could 
be content I should marry, or not, and if he says he will 
be content, I pray you ask his grace whom he would 
have to be my wife!"* 

That night Fowler, whom the admiral had pro- 
pitiated with a present, being alone with the king, said 
to him, "An' please your grace, I marvel my lord 
admiral marrieth not." Edward making no rejoinder 
to this remark, Fowler put the question direct, " Could 
your grace be contented he should marry ? " " Yea, 
very well," replied Edward. "Whom would your grace 
like him to marry ? " inquired Fowler. The royal boy 
in the unsuspicious innocence of his heart, named, 
"My lady Anne of Cleves."f Then after a thoughtful 
pause, with equal simplicity amended his proposition, by 
saying, "Nay, nay y wot you what? I would he married 
my sister Mary, to turn her opinions," and there the 
conference ended. 

The next day the lord admiral waylaid Fowler in the 
gallery of St. James's Palace, and inquired if he had 
sounded the king on his matrimonial purposes, and what 
had been the result, when Fowler repeated what the 

* MS. Harleian, 249, f. 26. time. See her Life in " Lives of 

f Anne of Cleyes was only three- Queens of England," by Agnes 

and-thirty years of age at that Strickland, vol. iii, Library edition- 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 255 

young king had said. The admiral laughed, as well he 
might, at the choice of wives offered by his royal nephew, 
so near and yet so wide of the mark at which he aimed. 
"I pray you, Mr. Fowler," said he, after he had recovered 
his gravity, " ask his grace if he could be contented I 
should marry the queen, and in case I be a suitor to his 
highness for his letter to the queen, whether his majesty 
would write for me or not."* 

Fowler fulfilled the lord admiral's desire, and obtained, 
as it appears, a secret interview between the uncle and 
nephew the next day. The details of the conference in 
which the admiral disclosed his passion for the still 
lovely queen dowager to her royal step-son, and solicited 
his good offices in overcoming the alleged reluctance 
of her majesty to enter for the fourth time into the 
holy pale of matrimony, would doubtless have sup- 
plied a racy page to the personal history of the juvenile 
monarch ; but as it was strictly private, the sayings of 
neither uncle nor nephew are on record. The result 
however is well known. The admiral, though he had been 
for some weeks clandestinely married to Katharine, 
appealed so successfully to the kindly feelings of the 
amiable little king, who perhaps had never before been 
made the confidant in a love affair, that he beguiled his 
majesty into writing a letter in his behalf to the queen to 
plead his cause, requesting her to smile upon his suit. 
Neither this letter, nor Katharine's answer, signifying her 
compliance with his royal will, have been discovered ; but 
Edward's rejoinder to her acquiescent epistle, which is 
not in Latin, but his own genuine writing, is very natural 
and pretty. 

11 ~We thank you heartily, not only for your gentle acceptation of 
our suit moved unto you, but also for your loving accomplishing 
of the same, wherein you have declared not only a desire to gra- 
tify us, but also moved us to declare the good will likewise that 
we bear to you in all your requests. Wherefore ye shall not need 
to fear any grief to come, or to suspect lack of aid in need, seeing 

* Ibid. 



256 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

that he being mine uncle is of so good a nature that he will not be 
troublesome by any means to you, and I of that mind, that of divers 
just causes I must favour you. But even as without cause you 
merely require help against him, whom you have put in trust with 
the carriage of those letters ; so may I merely return the same 
request unto you to provide that he may live with you also without 
grief, which hath given him wholly unto you." * 

In the last paragraph Edward alludes to his uncle's 
supposed devotion to queen Katharine, and then, with 
no small notion of his own royal power, graciously 
proceeds to promise his protection to the secretly 
wedded lovers in case of their requiring it : 

" And I will so provide for you both that hereafter if any grief 
befall I shall be sufficient succour in your godly or praiseable 
enterprises. Fare ye well, with much encrease of honour and 
virtue in Christ. From sainte James, the nfe and twenty day of 
June. . "Edward. 

" To the queene's grace."t 

The marriage between the lord admiral and the queen 
dowager was not made public till the end of June, yet 
that it took place in May is thus certified by Edward's 
own pen in his record of the current events of that 
month: "The lord Seimour of Sudley, married the 
queue, whos nam was Katarine, with which marriage 
the lord protector was much offended.''^ 

* Strype. Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. ii, book 1. 

f It was afterwards brought in the and require the said queen to marry 

articles of accusation against the lord with you/' 

admiral, both that he married the J The curious document in which 
widowed queen so soon after the late this entry appears is now called King 
king's death that the birth of their Edward's Journal — a title applied 
child, had it occurred a little earlier to it by Burnet. Edward himself 
than it did, might have imperilled entitled it " A Chronicle." He has 
and perplexed the royal succession, not written it in the form of a journal 
and also article 21 :" It is objected or diary, but as a record of the occur- 
and laid to your charge that you first rences of his reign : sometimes these 
married the queen privately, and did notations are made from memory, 
dissemble and keep close the same, and chasms of days, weeks, and even 
insomuch that a good space after you months intervene, between his jot- 
had married her you made labour to tings down. It occupies 68 pages of 
the king's majesty, and obtained a a folio, which is preserved among the 
letter of his majesty's hand to move choice MSS. of the Cotton collection. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 257 

Somerset's displeasure was, for the present, harmless, 
for, on the unfavourable termination of the negotiations 
with the regent of Scotland, for the union of the realms 
by the marriage of the young bachelor king of England 
with Mary queen of Scots, he renewed the war, and took 
the field in person. 

King Edward's own pen has given a brief, but 
animated record of the Scotch campaign and victorious 
career of Somerset, including a terse narrative of the 
battle of Pinkie, near Musselborough. The terrible pre- 
ponderance of the loss on the enemy's side is related by 
the royal boy with evident exultation. 

" There was great preparation made to go into Scot- 
land, and the lord protector, the earl of Warwick, the 
lord Dacres, the lord Gray, and Mr. Bryan went with 
a great number of nobles and gentlemen to Berwick, 
where, the first day after his coming, he mustered all his 
company, which were to the number of 13,000 footmen 
and 5,000 horsemen. The next day he marched on into 
Scotland, and so passed the Pease.* 

" Then he burnt two castles in Scotland,! and so passed 
a strait of a bridge, where 300 Scotch light horsemen 
set upon him behind him, who were discomfited. So 
he passed to Musselborough, where the first day after 
he came he went up the hill and saw the Scots, think- 
ing them, as they were, indeed, at least 36,000 men; 
and my lord Warwick was almost taken, chasing the 
earl of Huntley, by an ambush. But he was rescued 
by one Bertiville, with twelve hagbutters on horse- 
back, and the ambush ran away. 

" The 7th of September the lord protector thought to 
get the hill, which the Scots seeing, passed the bridge 
over the river of Musselborough, and strove for the 
higher ground and almost got it. But our horsemen set 

* The wild pass of Cockburn, or Peats, since softened into " The pass 
Coldbrand's path, anciently called the of Pease." 
f Somerset burned the castles of Dunglass and Thornton and Anderwick. 

17 



258 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

upon them, who, though they stayed them, yet were 
put to flight and gathered together by the duke of 
Somerset, lord protector, and the earl of Warwick, 
and ready to give a new onset. The Scots being 
amazed with this fled their ways, some to Edin- 
burgh, some to the sea, and some to Dalkeith, and 
there were slain 10,000 of them. But of the English- 
men, 51 horsemen, which were almost all gentlemen, 
and but one footman. Prisoners were taken, the lord 
Huntley, chancellor of Scotland, and divers other gen- 
tlemen, and slain of lairds, 1,000/'* 

The earl of Huntley, on being asked by Somerset how 
he could like of the marriage between king Edward and 
the queen of Scots, drily replied, " The marriage may be 
weel enough, but I dinna like the manner of the wooing/' 

Somerset had pursued the same cruel and destructive 
system of warfare with which he had desolated Scotland 
in his previous campaign, and provoked national hatred 
that rendered all hopes of a happy union between the 
realms, by the marriage of their fair young sovereigns, 
formed, as they appeared to be, by heaven for each other, 
impracticable, f 

Edward makes no allusion in his journal to the cause 
of the war, or the probability of winning a bride, but in 
his letters to his uncle Somerset, appears to anticipate, 
with great satisfaction, the conquest of Scotland, and the 
extirpation of monks and friars from that realm. 

It is from his letter to Somerset, from Oatlands, Sept. 
18th, on the occasion of the victory at Pinkie, that the 
fac simile of his autograph is taken : 

"Deakest Uncle, 

" We have at length understanded to our great comfort, 
the good success it hath pleased God to grant us against the Scots, for 
your good courage and wise conduct, for the which we give unto you, 

* King Edward's Journal, 
f See Life of Mary of Lorraine, iii, "Lives of Queens of Scotland/' 
vol. ii, and Life of Mary Stuart, vol. by Agnes Stbickland, 3rd edition. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 259 

good uncle, our most hearty thanks ; praying you to thank most 
heartily, in our name, our good cousin the earl of Warwick, and all 
the others of the noblemen, gentlemen, and others that have served 
in this journey, of whose services they shall be well assured we 
will not show ourselves unmindful, but be ready ever to consider 
the same as any occasion shall arrive." 



yom mi WW 



* Royal Autograph ; Choice MSS., British Museum. 



EDWAED THE SIXTH. 



CHAPTER III. 

King Edward's new favourite, Throckmorton — Romp-royal at knighting 
him— Bids him present his wife — Reproaches Throckmorton for her mean 
dress— Gives them a royal grant — Somerset's return puts an end to the 
young king's fun — Edward straitened for pocket money — His uncle, 
the lord admiral, supplies him privately — Edward meets his first parliament 
—Liturgy in English established — Lord admiral asks Edward to write to 
the lords in his behalf — Edward refuses — Complains of his uncle Somerset's 
hard dealing — His discontent fomented by lord admiral— King obtains 
sums of money from admiral — "Way in which he expends it — King's 
love for his sister Elizabeth — Servile homage paid to him — Latimer 
preaches before him on the choice of a wife — King wishes to reward 
him — Obtains the money from lord admiral for that purpose — Their 
clandestine correspondence — King's small notes — Death of queen Katharine 
Parr — Injurious reports of lord admiral — His courtship of princess 
Elizabeth— Scandals about them — Schemes for marrying the king to lady 
Jane Gray, and for abducting the king — Wrath of Somerset — lord 
admiral threatened with the Tower — His rash attempt to enter king's 
chamber at midnight — Door defended by king's dog — Admiral kills the 
dog — Is sent to the Tower — Condemned to die— King leaves him to his 
fate — Latimer preaches against him before the king — King Edward 
writes a book against the pope — His want of information about pro- 
ceedings in his own court — Woes of royal minors. 

One of the post-haste letters, announcing the success of 
his arms in Scotland, was brought to the king by Nicholas 
Throckmorton, a young courtier, who, having greatly 
distinguished himself by his valour, during the campaign, 
was especially recommended by Somerset to his royal 
nephew for preferment in the household. As Throck- 
morton was a favourite cousin of queen Katharine Parr, 
and had been her cup-bearer during the last year of 
the life of king Henry VIII., he was not unknown 
to Edward, and the lord admiral, though opposed to 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 261 

Somerset, on most occasions, warmly backed his recom- 
mendation on this, so that the king was induced to appoint 
him one of the gentlemen of his privy chamber. The 
new chamberer had formerly been page to Edward's 
illegitimate brother, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, 
and accustomed to conform himself, with due subserviency, 
to the violent temper of this sinistral scion of the royal 
stem of Tudor, as we learn from the following quaint 
lines on the subject in the metrical chronicle of the 
life of sir Nicholas Throckmorton :* 

" A brother fourth, and far from hope of land, 
By parent's hest I served as a page 
To Richmond's duke, and waited still at hand, 
For fear of blows that happened in his rage." 

The amiable young king was a master of a very 
different disposition from his brother Richmond, for 
his greatest pleasure was to contribute to the happi- 
ness of those about him, and no instance of his giving 
way to uncontrolled passion has ever been recorded. 
He took a great fancy to Nicholas Throckmorton, 
with whom, it appears, the juvenile monarch occasion- 
ally relaxed the over -bent -bow of premature regal 
dignity, learned labour, and theological studies, to enjoy 
a little fun : 

" For lo, the king's affection was such 

That he would jest with me most merrily, 
And though thereat my betters still did grutch, 

Yet, ne'ertheless, he'd use my company. 
He wearied much with lords and others mo, 
Alone with me into some place would go. 

* By his nephew, sir Thomas Coughton Court, to our mutual 

Throckmorton. The family copy of friend, the lamented Jane Porter, 

this curious historical document author of M Thaddeus of Warsaw," 

was kindly presented by his descen- and by her given to me as a contri- 

dant and representative, the late bution to my historical collections for 

sir Charles Throckmorton, bart., of the Life of Katharine Parr. — A. S. 



262 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Let Sidney, Nevil, and the rest that were 
In privy chamber, then but tell the truth, 

If they have seen his liking any where, 
Such as to me, who never felt his wrath."* 

The Sidney to whom Throckmorton alludes was Henry, 
eldest son of sir William Sidney, the comptroller of 
Edward's household when prince, one of his most favour- 
ite companions from his childhood, so much so, that 
he generally had the honour of sharing his bed. On 
Edward's accession to the throne, Henry Sidney being 
about nineteen years of age, was appointed first gentle- 
man of the household to his young royal friend, who 
subsequently knighted him.f Edward appears to have 
taken especial pleasure in exercising this chivalric 
function of his regal office. Once, when in his privy 
chamber, unfettered by the restraining presence of his 
uncle, the protector, Cranmer, or any other grave 
member of his council, he offered to knight his new 
favourite Nicholas Throckmorton; but Throckmorton, 
being more experienced in the stately etiquettes of a 
court than his juvenile sovereign, and probably appre- 
hending that he should be brought into trouble if he 
availed himself, without express leave from the protector 
or the council, of the proffered honour his majesty desired 
to confer upon him, treated the matter as a joke, ran 
off into the back stairs lobby, and hid himself behind 
a piece of furniture there. The young king gave 
chase with a drawn sword in his hand. Plato, Aristotle, 
Socrates, and all the philosophers of old, and, more than 
that, the grave theologians, pedants, and pedagogues 
of his school room, were forgotten in the moment of 
mirthful excitement, when he tracked Throckmorton to 

* Ibid. He was in Elizabeth's reign made first 

fin 1549 Edward knighted Henry president of Wales, and afterwards 

Sidney and sent him ambassador to lord deputy of Ireland. Sir Henry was 

France, when only two and twenty the father of the immortal sir Philip 

years of age, and in 1550 constituted Sidney, the author of the Arcadia 

him his chief cup-bearer for life. and the hero of Zutphen. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 263 

his hiding place, and strove to pull him out. A romp- 
royal ensued, for a boy in his tenth year, even if 
subjected to regal fetters, will sometimes act according 
to nature. Finding he could not succeed in dragging 
the military courtier, who had so well earned his spurs 
at Pinkie field, from his entrenchment, the young king, 
who, Tudor like, was bent on accomplishing his royal 
will, bestowed the accolade of honour upon him then 
and there, to the scandal of some who were present, 
and murmured. The incident is thus quaintly versified 
in the Throckmorton MSS. — 

" And on a time when I should knighted be, 

The king said * Kneel/ yet then I went my way ; 
But straight himself ran forth and spied me 

Behind a chest, in lobby where I lay. 
And there against my will he dubbed me knight, 
Which was an eyesore unto some men's sight." 

The new knight had been for some time a married 
man, but having no living, kept his wife in retirement, 
till encouraged by the favour of his young royal 
master, he confided the fact to him, and received his 
commands to present lady Throckmorton to him. The 
result is thus related in the metrical chronicle of 
Throckmorton's life: 

" "When to the king my wife was showed, new brought 
To court, who for the nonce was meanly clad, 
He told her l that I was a husband naught, 
Because he saw her courtly robes so bad ; ' 
But she excused the fault, with ' poverty, 
Which me enforced to keep her beggarly. 7 

* l And I replied, ' For her it was no way, 

To bear the merchant's stock upon her back, 

Unless I knew some means it to repay, 
Or us to save from ruin, or from wrack.' 

He answered, ' Dost thou want, and blush to crave ? 

Of right the tongue-tied man should nothing have. 



264 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

" ' But we are well contented for to give 

Something of profit, which, thou shalt espy, 

Whereby thou shalt be able for to live, 
If that before some further help we die. 

Eightly of us, thou never shalt complain, 

That travail was thy sole reward for pain.' " 

As the marquis of Northampton, and the earl of 
Pembroke, the brother and brother-in-law of Throckmor- 
ton's royal patroness and kinswoman, queen Katharine, 
were the leading men in the government, during the 
absence of the protector Somerset, king Edward found 
no difficulty in gratifying his kind wish of enriching his 
new favourite with the church lands of Pauler Perry. 
After this liberal endowment, his majesty gave Throck- 
morton leave of absence from his duty in the privy 
chamber that he might carry his wife down to Coughton 
Court, to pay his father a dutiful visit, and, lest he should 
be taken by surprise, Throckmorton wrote to announce his 
intention to the old knight. 

The landless martlet, who had migrated from the 
paternal nest, where there was no inheritance for him, 
and returned a prosperous courtier, rich in fame, 
wealth, and honours self- acquired, flattered himself that 
he should be warmly welcomed ; but, though he had 
escaped a Star Chamber fine for the irregular manner 
in which his knighthood had been thrust upon him, 
by the frolicsome boy who represented the majesty 
of England, the clownish old Staffordshire knight, 
his father, took umbrage at his having been qualified 
by king Edward's favour to take precedence of his 
elder brother, who had no claim to obtain the like dis- 
tinction. The old man had construed sir Nicholas' 
intimation of the intended visit of himself and his lady 
into a hint that he had expected the fatted calf to be 
killed on his account. The mortifying nature of his 
reception is thus commemorated in the metrical chronicle 
of his life : 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 265 

" He thumpt me on the breast and thus began, 
' Sir knight, sir knave ! a foolish boy art thon ; 
And yet thou think' st thyself a goodly man. 

Why shouldst thou scorn thy father's daily fare, 
Or send me word when I should see thee here, 
As who should say I should provide good cheer ? 

" ' Too base for thee thou deem'st thy father's food, 
But since 'tis so I tell thee in good truth, 
My carter's meat I think is far too good 

For such a one, that bring' st so dainty tooth. 
I see thou grow'st into disdain of me, 
Wherefore, know this, I careless am of thee/ 

" These taunting terms did trouble much my mind, 
But I did sound the cause of all this grief ; 

The sore once seen, a plaister I did find, 
And after that my stay was very brief. 

He thought to him some injury was done, 

That I was knight before his eldest son." 

Sir Nicholas accordingly, through, his favour with the 
young king, obtained the like honour that had been 
vouchsafed to himself, only in a more regular manner, 
for his eldest brother, and places in the household for 
others of the family.* 

The return of the lord protector Somerset from Scot- 
land, far, earlier in the autumn than was anticipated, put 
an end to all undignified indulgence in frolic and fun on 
the part of the boy-king, and further clipped his wings, 
by limiting his expenses to his regular allowance. 
Edward, whose delight was to give, found the means 
of gratifying his royal munificence cut off : his pocket 
money being inadequate to the rewards it was his 
pleasure to bestow on his servants, minstrels, and 
those persons in humble life, who brought him little 
offerings. His uncle, the lord admiral, perceiving his 
vexation, offered to assist him with money for these 
purposes, and told him to apply to him whenever he was 

* Throckmorton MS. 



266 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

in need of a supply, taking care, at the same time, to 
insinuate "that his majesty was hardly treated by 
Somerset, and ought to be given more money and 
allowed more liberty."* 

The secret information Somerset had received of the 
intrigues of his younger brother to supplant him 
in the custody of their royal nephew's person, and 
to obtain a share in the government, had induced 
him, instead of improving his victory, to hasten home 
from Scotland before the meeting of parliament, which 
had been summoned to assemble at Westminster on 
the 4th of November. Edward, who had just com- 
pleted his tenth year, took his seat on the throne, the 
peers being ranged on each side, and the commons 
standing below the bar. He then commanded the clerk 
of parliament to read the commission appointing the lord 
protector's seat.f Then the parliament was opened by 
the new lord chancellor. A solemn mass on this occasion 
was said by Cranmer, for the last time : it was in English. 
The wholesome changes in public worship effected by the 
reformation had already commenced, and were steadily 
progressing; for though the ritual of the Church of Rome 
was still used, the prayers were read in English ; so also 
were the epistle and gospel. Processions and images were 
gradually abolished ; fasting was no longer enjoined to be 
practised, even in Lent, but people were allowed to act 
according to the dictates of their own consciences, both in 
regard to that and the use of auricular confession. The 
communion service was soon after solemnized in English, 

* Haynes' State Papers. tne canopy or cloth of estate, and to 

have all the honours and privileges 

f In the patent under the great ever enjoyed by a king's uncle, 

seal, which conceded to Somerset, in whether by the mother's side or the 

the name of his royal nephew, the father's, a piece of presumption 

twofold offices of protector of king w^hich could not fail of displeasing all 

Edward's person and the government who boasted a share of the royal blood. 

of his realm, it was also provided He moreover assumed the regal pro- 

that he was to sit in parliament on noun " We," both in public circulars 

the right hand of the throne, under and his private- letters. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 267 

and administered in both kinds, to the great joy of the 
people, the laity having been deprived for many centuries 
of the cup. Erasmus's paraphrase on the New Testament 
was ordered to be provided for the use of every parish, 
and the Book of Homilies was prepared by Cranmer for 
the use of such of the clergy as lacked the power of 
compounding sermons for themselves. The young king 
was generally believed to be the deviser of all the 
salutary enactments which were promulgated by his 
authority, insomuch that Coverdale calls him " the high 
and chief admiral of the great navy of the Lord of Hosts, 
principal captain and governor of all us under him, the 
most noble ruler of his ship, even our most comfortable 
Noah."* A grant was made to the king by this parlia- 
ment of the endowments of all chauntries and colleges, 
without even excepting the universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge. These were preserved by the powerful inter- 
cession of Edward's honest and right-minded tutor, Dr. 
Cox, who had just been elected chancellor of Oxford, f 

the epistle to the Eomans. He it was 

* Strype 11, 65. to whom, when sir Christopher Hatton 

f Biographia Britannica, Life of endeavoured to deprive him of his epis- 

Cox. On the accession of Edward copal mansion and gardens on Holborn 

VI. Cox was elected chancellor of hill, the virgin queen wrote that cele- 

Oxford and made dean of Westminster. brated laconic epistle, commencing 

When an act was passed for giving all " Proud Prelate," threatening to de- 

chauntries and colleges to the king, prive him of his bishopric, if he re- 

his powerful intercession with his sisted her royal will, and confirming 

royal pupil preserved the universities her menace with an oath. Another of 

both of Oxford and Cambridge from the greedy courtiers, lord North, fixed 

the sweeping plunder meditated. He his affections on the two best manors 

was one of the assistants in framing of his see, Somersham and Down- 

the liturgy, which, when in exile for ham park, and threatened him with 

conscience' sake at Frankfort, he the queen's wrath if he refused to 

fearlessly supported and maintained yield it. Cox manfully defended his 

against the assaults of Knox and the temporalities against both, till har- 

Puritans, who, finding themselves assed by the long chancery suit insti- 

defeated, retired to Basle and Geneva. tuted against him by Hatton, and 

On Elizabeth's accession he was made oppressed by the burden of 80 years, 

bishop of Ely, and in the new trans- he petitioned the queen to permit 

lation of the Bible undertook the four him to resign his benefice. There 

gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and was so much difficulty in finding a 



268 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

During the sitting of this short sessions of parliament, 
Edward's uncle, the lord admiral, brought a paper to sir 
John Cheke, and requested him to get it signed by his 
royal pupil. It was to this effect : " My lords, I pray you 
favour my lord admiral, mine uncle, in the suit which he 
will make to you." Cheke replied " that lord Paget, the 
secretary of state, had expressly enjoined him not to allow 
the king to sign any paper unless it were countersigned 
by him ; therefore he dared not cause his majesty to set 
his hand to it." The admiral replied, " You may do it 
well enough, seeing the king's majesty hath promised it, 
and although I am but an ill speaker myself, yet if I 
have that paper to show, I am sure the best speakers in 
the house will help me to prefer it." Cheke, aware of 
the danger such a proceeding would incur, refused to 
gratify him. The admiral then sought a secret inter- 
view with the king, and asked him to write somewhat 
to the parliament for him.* Edward asked him " what 
it was?" "No ill thing," replied the admiral; "it is for 
the queen." "If it be good," observed the young king, 
" the lords will allow it ; if ill, I will not write about 
it."f The admiral, however, continued his importunity 
to his royal nephew to use his influence, till at last 
Edward, aware that he was tempting him to take a most 
improper step, desired him sharply to let him alone. 
When he was gone, Cheke, said impressively to his 
illustrious pupil, "Ye were best not to write. "J The suit 
for which the lord admiral desired to obtain the king's 
unconstitutional interference with the peers, was, pro- 
bably, the dispute between the protector and the queen 
dowager, touching his detention of her jewels as the 

proper successor, that he departed * State Paper Office MS., sir John 

this life before the matter was accom- Cheke' s confession. 

plished. He was buried in Ely . ._. ^, ,, ^ 

f lL , , , , . . . .,, v- f King Edward s Deposition. 

cathedral, where his tomb with his ' , ° r 

Latin epitaph, written by himself, ^ P > • 

and punning on his name, may still + -r-, • i 

be seen. + 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 2G9 

property of the crown, which she claimed as the personal 
gifts of the late king her husband to herself, even her 
wedding ring being withheld from her, a manifest insult 
as well as injustice, and the more offensive to the royal 
widow, because the duchess of Somerset presumptuously 
disputed her precedence in the court of Edward VI., with 
injurious observations on the validity of her marriage 
with Henry VIII. 

The young king loved not his uncle the protector, 
and ill brooked the restraints to which he found him- 
self subjected. To persons in his confidence he some- 
times "made his moan" in these words, "My uncle of 
Somerset dealeth very hardly with me, and keepeth me 
so strait that I cannot have money at my will. But 
my lord admiral both sends me money and gives me 
money."* 

The admiral, taking advantage of the discontent of the 
royal boy, said to him, " Your grace is too bashful in 
your own matters. Why do ye not speak to bear rule 
as other kings do?" Edward's natural good sense, 
warning him that he might be drawn into a dangerous 
position, cut short the conference by rejoining, "It 
needeth not, I am well enough."! 

Somerset's patent of lord protector invested him 
with full powers to govern in the king's name till his 
majesty should have completed his eighteenth year, but 
as it only had been conferred by the privy council, under 
the great seal, it required the sanction of parliament 
to render his appointment legal. His brother, the lord 
admiral, being at the head of a strong party against 
him, though he did not venture to propose depriving 
him of the protectorate, contrived that the important 
alteration should be made by parliament in the patent, 
that instead of the time fixed by the privy council till 
the king completed his eighteenth year, the words "or 

* Deposition of the marquis of f Confession of king Edward, in 

Doiset ; Haynes, 75. Haynes, 76. 



270 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

during his majesty's pleasure/' should be added. The 
admiral had certainly laboured to effect this, in conse- 
quence of a secret understanding with his royal nephew, 
for the next time they met Edward thanked him for it.* 

"Ye must take upon yourself to rule," said the 
kindred tempter to the young sovereign, at one of their 
stolen conferences, " for ye shall be able enough as 
other kings, and then ye may give your men somewhat. 
Ye are but a beggarly king now ; ye have not to play nor 
to give your servants." " Mr. Stanhope hath for me,"f 
replied Edward. But this was money for every penny of 
which account would have to be rendered to the protector, 
for Stanhope was the duchess of Somerset's brother. 
Edward desired pocket money for gratuities and other 
purposes, for which he liked not to be checked by 
his compotus ; so the admiral offered him unlimited 
access to his purse, and bade him let him know through 
Fowler whenever he wanted money, and he should have 

it.* 

How innocent the uses were to which the boy-king 
applied the sums thus obtained of his uncle, the lord 
admiral, is apparent from the account kept by Fowler 
of the same. It appears withal that his schoolmaster, 
Cheke, was deeply involved in the intrigue — at any rate, 
the first fruits of it, twenty pounds, were bestowed on 
him by the royal pupil. Belmaine, the king's French 
master, was recipient of five pounds, given to him by his 
majesty's commandment at two different times. Five 
pounds were delivered to the king, which he gave to 
John Ashley at sundry times, after receiving lessons 
on the virginals from him. Forty shillings to Garrard 
of the guard, for a book he gave the king at St. James's. 
The like gratuity to the lord privy seal's trumpeter, 
when the king skirmished in the garden at Hampton 
Court, at four sundry times. Also, "to a trumpeter which 

* Hayne's State Papers. f Confessions of king Edward. 

% Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 271 

sometime was my lord Braye's servant, for playing on 
the Thames opposite the palace at Greenwich ; " and at 
Greenwich, "to certain tumblers that played, his grace 
looking out upon them."* 

To Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, the king's favourite young 
friend, two pounds were sent twice by his majesty's 
command. According to the king's subsequent confes- 
sion, when called to account in his own council chamber 
for all these contraband proceedings, he " employed his 
French master, Belmaine, to pay a small sum, the 
amount of which had escaped his memory, to a book- 
binder," whom he had privily honoured with his royal 
patronage, f 

When the parliament was up, and the admiral was 
going to Hanworth with his royal consort, the queen 
dowager, being prevented from seeing the king, he in- 
structed Fowler to ask his majesty " to write some little 
friendly communication to him with his own hand, as it 
would comfort the queen." Fowler did as requested, saying 
to the king, " Your grace ought to thank the lord admiral 
for the gentleness he hath shown to you and for his 
money." Edward wrote as usual in a very laconic 
strain, not forgetting to include a petition for more 
money in his royal billet, which only contained these 
words : " My lord, I recommend me to you and the 
quene, praying you to send me such money as ye think 
good to give away, as Fowler doth write in his letter." 

Fowler in his letter to the admiral says, "The king 
hath sent you, herein inclosed, commendations to the 
queen and to your lordship, with his own hand, praying 
your lordship also to send him some money as you shall 
think good, for his majesty will give Mr. Howard, because 
he is going to Scotland.''^ 

The admiral, in reply, sent Fowler an order on the 
queen's receiver in London, "to deliver forty pounds for 

* Harleian MS. 249, f. 46. 
f Haynes, 74. J Haynes. 



272 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

the king's use." West, the bearer of this missive, came 
again to Hampton Court, a fortnight or three weeks after, 
and inquired of Fowler if he had anything for the lord 
admiral, who had a post of his own ready at all times to 
convey letters privately to him from the court. It was 
three days before Fowler had an opportunity of asking 
the king if he wished to send anything to the admiral. 
" Nothing/' replied Edward. " If it were your grace's 
pleasure to write some recommendations with thanks for 
his gentleness it were well done," observed Fowler, and 
retired, not supposing, by Edward's manner, he would. 
The young king, however, who had not yet thanked his 
uncle for the last disbursement, acted on Fowler's hint ; 
but the difficulty he had to find an opportunity of doing 
so may be conjectured, from the furtive manner of his pro- 
ceedings, for when he saw Fowler again he told him "to 
go into the little house, within his dining room, and take 
the writing that lay under the carpet in the window there, 
and send it to the lord admiral with his commendations."* 
The scrap of paper the royal boy had secreted there, con- 
tained only these two lines, without address or signature. 
" My lord, I recommend me unto you and the queen, 
thanking you always for your remembrance." Fowler, as 
before, enclosed this stealthily written missive in his letter, 
telling the admiral " the king was in health, and had him 
in memory as much as any nobleman in England." With- 
in a fortnight the admiral wrote again to Fowler, referring 
him to "Mr. Locke of London, who had forty pounds in 
hand against it should be required, which could be had 
for the sending for." Edward was enabled to gratify his 
love of giving at Christmas and new year's tide, from 
this source. 

Both his sisters, from whom he had been long sepa- 
rated, were permitted to visit the young king at this 
season. His affection for Elizabeth is prettily mentioned 
by one of the eloquent memorialists of her court, 

* Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 273 

who says, "She was his, and one of the darlings 
of fortune ; for besides the considerations of blood, there 
was between these two princes a concurrency and sym- 
pathy in their natures and affections, together with the 
celestial bond, conformity in religion, which made them 
one and friends. The king ever called her his sweetest 
and dearest sister."* Sometimes too he gave her the pet 
name of "his sweet sister Temperance." It was in 
reply to his affectionate request for her portrait, that she 
wrote her celebrated metaphorical letter, beginning " Like 
as the rich man gathereth riches to riches." 

The excessive homage with which the juvenile monarch 
was treated in his court, and which certainly was an 
innovation on the customs observed in previous reigns, 
savoured of the slavish prostrations with which Chinese 
etiquette prescribes the approaches to the celestial 
emperor. No one was permitted to address him, not even 
his sisters, without kneeling to him. "I have seen," 
says TJbaldini, "the princess Elizabeth drop on one 
knee five times before her brother, before she took her 
place. At dinner, if either of his sisters were permitted 
to eat with him, she sat on a stool at a distance beyond 
the limits of the royal dais."f 

His dinner, even on ordinary days, was brought up by 
a procession of lords and gentlemen, bareheaded, who 
knelt down before they placed them on the table. This 
was considered a barbarism by the French ambassador 
and his suite, for in France these offices, except at royal 
marriages and coronations, were performed by pages, who 
only bowed instead of kneeling.:}: 

Edward kept his Shrovetide festival at Greenwich this 
year. Jousts and martial feats took place in the park on 
the Monday and Tuesday. " A castle or fort was built up 
of turf, which was besieged, stormed, and defended, to 
show his majesty some passages in the art of war, 

* Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia. f Von Raumer, vol. ii., page 70. 

} Memoirs de Vielleville, 
18 



274 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

wherein he took great delight.* Edward, in his journal, 
calls this chivalric entertainment " a triumph, where," 
says he, " six gentlemen did challenge all comers 
at barriers, jousts, and tournay, and also that they 
would keep a fortress with thirty of them against an 
hundred." 

On the first Friday in Lent, Latimer, the most popular 
preacher of that day, preached before the young king 
for the first time. In anticipation of the eager concourse 
who thronged to listen to his animated eloquence, a pulpit 
had been erected for him in the privy gardens, at 
Whitehall, where four times more people could enjoy the 
opportunity of hearing him than in the chapel royal, f 
The pulpit was so placed that the king and the protector 
Somerset, and other great personages, might hear him 
from the balcony of the palace, where they sat at ease, 
the rest of the voluntary congregation, who had assem- 
bled themselves to listen, stood below, while many 
females, among whom weYe mingled ladies of wealth and 
title, sat round the foot of the pulpit or clustered on 
the stairs. 

The zealous preacher, in this his first sermon, thought 
proper to favour the young bachelor king, his sovereign, 
with some wholesome matrimonial advice, for after des- 
canting on "the evil inclinations and weakness of women, 
and the difficulty husbands found in ruling one wife 
rightly," he earnestly exhorted his majesty "not to marry 
more than one at a time, and to take heed that he made 
a proper choice, and that she was of the household of 
faith. Yea," continued he, "let all estates be no less cir- 
cumspect in choosing her, taking great deliberation, and 
then shall not need divorcements, and such like mischiefs, 
to the evil examples and great slanders of our realm. 
And that she may be such a one as the king can find in 
his heart to love, and lead his life in pure and chaste 
espousage, and then shall he be more prone and ready to i 

* Stow's Chronicle. f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 275 

advance God's glory. Therefore, we ought to make a 
continual prayer unto God for to grant our king's grace 
such a mate, as may knit his heart and hers according 
to God's ordinance and law, and not to consider and 
cleave only to a politic matter, or conjunction for the 
enlargement of his dominions, for surety and defence of 
countries, setting apart the institution and ordinance of 
God. * * * 

" The fear of the Lord is the fountain of wisdom. I 
would God this sentence were always printed in the heart 
of the king, in chusing his wife."* 

The little royal bachelor, in his eleventh year, was so 
well pleased with the sermon, which, however, embraced 
many other topics, that although every divine who 
preached before him received a gratuity of twenty shillings, 
he desired to testify his high sense of Latimer's merit 
by a royal gift from his own privy purse ; but as this 
was, as usual, empty, he sent a note, by Fowler, to his 
uncle, the admiral, stating his desire of making a 
pecuniary compliment to Latimer, and inquired how 
much he ought to give. 

The admiral sent him forty pounds, but said, " Twenty 
pounds, methinks, will be a good reward for Latimer, 
and the king's majesty can use the other twenty pounds 
as he will."f 

Once when preaching before king Edward in the royal 
banqueting hall, Latimer complained of the noise of some 
of the people who walked about while he was preaching, 
instead of standing reverently like the devout portion of 
his congregation to listen. " Surely," exclaimed he, " it is 
an ill misorder that folks shall be walking up and down 
in sermon time, as I have seen in this place this Lent, and 
there shall be such a hussing and buzzing in the preacher's 
ears that it maketh him often to forget his matter. 
let us consider the king's goodness. This place was 
prepared for banqueting of the body, and his majesty 
* Latimer's Sermons. t Haynes' State Papers. 



276 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



hath made it a place for the comfort of the soul. Consider 
what the king's majesty hath done for you : he alloweth 
you all to hear with him ; consider where ye be. First 
ye ought to have a reverence of God's word, and though 
it be preached by poor men, yet it is the same word our 
Saviour spoke. Consider also the presence of the king's 
majesty, God's high vicar on earth. Having a respect to 
his personage, ye ought to have reverence to it, and con- 
sider that he is God's high minister, and yet alloweth ye 
all to be partakers with him of the hearing of God's 
word."* 

Previously to his leaving London this summer, Edward 
wrote his credence to the lord admiral for Fowler in 
these laconic terms : — 

"I commende me to you my lord, and pray you to credit this 
writer. "EDWAKD."f 

Beneath this royal autograph Fowler wrote : — 

u This shall serve to certify you that the king's majesty is in good 
health, thanks be given to Glod ; and has been heartily recommended 
to the queen's grace and to your good lordship. And his grace willed 
me to write to your lordship, declaring to me ' that his mind and love, 
notwithstanding your absence, is towards your lordship, as much as 
to any man within England.' Also, his grace willed me to write to 
your lordship, desiring you, as your lordship has willed him to do, if 
he lack any money, to send to your lordship. His grace desires you, 
if you conveniently may, to let him have some money. I asked his 
grace what sum I should write to your lordship for. His grace would 
name no sum, but as it pleased your lordship to send him, for he 
determines to give it away, but to whom he will not tell me as yet. 
I am not able to send your lordship no news, but that my lord of 
Winchester (Gardiner) preaches before the king upon St. Peter's day 
at Westminster. His grace is now at St. James's, and my lord 
protector is there every night, but he dines at Westminster. I will 
send your lordship the bishop's sermon, God willing, the next time 
I write unto your lordship, and if any news come then I will satisfy 
your lordship. The king's majesty desires your lordship to send him 
this money as shortly as you can, and because your lordship may 
credit me the better, his grace has written in the beginning of the 

* Latimer's Sermons. f Haynes' State Papers. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 277 

letter himself. And thus making an end I commit your lordship to 
almighty God, to whom my daily prayer is to preserve the queen's 
grace and yourself, with all yours, to his godly pleasure. Written in 
haste at St. James's, the 26th of June. I desire your lordship to hum 
my letter." 

The sermon anticipated by Fowler with such lively- 
interest from bishop Gardiner, was required by the council 
in the name of the king from that prelate, on his recent 
enfranchisement from prison, as a test of his submission to 
the changes lately enacted by their authority in public 
worship, and the abrogation of superstitious ceremonies. 
Cranmer, to save him from all trouble, had obligingly 
written the heads and skeleton of the sermon he was 
required to preach on this occasion, but Gardiner declared 
" he did not possess the faculty of preaching any one's 
sermons but his own." Mr. secretary Cecil reminded him 
that he had on a former occasion observed, "that a king 
was as much of a king at one year old as at a hundred," 
and told him "that if he enlarged a little on that theme he 
thought it would be well taken." Gardiner replied that "he 
was happy to be required to speak on that subject, because 
he thought he could say somewhat on it as well as any one, 
having been formerly required by the late king to enter 
into that matter in defence of the authority of the infant 
queen of Scots in regard to the treaty of marriage between 
her and king Edward when prince." Cecil then warned 
him not to touch on transubstantiation, or to say anything 
about the mass, and showed him some of the king's MS. 
notes of sermons to which he had listened, proving that 
it was the custom of the youthful sovereign to jot down 
every notable sentence he heard from the pulpit, especially 
if it concerned a king.* 

Thus primed and warned, it was expected that Gardiner, 
who had given up the dogmas of the papal supremacy, 
and in various other points conformed his creed to the royal 
model in the reign of Henry VIII. would go a few steps 

* Nichols ; Strype ; Burnet ; Foxe ; Lingard. 



278 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

further to save his benefice, and sail with the tide of 
popular opinion. 

Expectation was on tiptoe when St. Peter's-day arrived, 
and Gardiner entered the pulpit, so lately occupied by 
Latimer, under the blue canopy of heaven. The preco- 
ciously learned young sovereign, note book in hand, was 
seated at an open window in the gallery to listen, with his 
tutor Dr. Cheke standing by his side, together with Dr. 
Cox, his almoner. The lord protector Somerset, and almost 
all the members of the cabinet and council, were also pre- 
sent to hear and sit in judgment on the discourse, while 
in the pulpit itself was stationed Nicholas TJdal, officially 
employed in taking notes of the sermon. It offended all 
the auditory, from the highest to the lowest, present ; for 
not only did the perverse bishop leave unsaid the things 
he was requested to say, but said those on which he was 
forbidden to speak, by entering into a warm defence of the 
old worship, and condemning the doctrines of the refor- 
mation ; and so far from magnifying the king's authority 
in his young age, he rather depreciated it than otherwise. 
The earl of Bedford declared "that the bishop used him- 
self very evil in his said sermon in the hearing of the 
king's majesty and his council, so evil indeed, that if 
his majesty and his council had not been present, his 
lordship verily thought the people would have pulled 
him out of the pulpit, they were so much offended 
with him." 

The next day the perverse bishop was arrested and 
lodged in the Tower by order of the king and council — an 
arbitrary but effectual measure for preventing further 
controversy and opposition to the progress of the reformed 
religion. 

Meantime the young king, who had been deprived for 
a long time of the society of his young Irish 'playmate 
and fellow student, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, having suc- 
ceeded in obtaining his uncle the protector's permission 
for him to be domesticated with him once more, wrote a 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 279 

simple and affectionate little letter to announce the 
welcome fact to Fitz-Patrick. The letter is addressed: 

11 Edward VI. to his dearest and most beloved Barnaby. 
" I give thee great thanks, my dearest Mr. Barnaby, because thou 
hast written to me. Though I have scarcely time to do so, yet, lest I 
should appear ungrateful I write these letters unto thee, to let thee 
know that I have asked my uncle to send for thee, and he desires 
thee to be here to-morrow. Salute D. 0. and D. B., and say I have 
not time to write to them. Farewell. The 9th of May, Wednesday? 
eight o'clock in the evening, the second day of the new moon. 

" Thy most loving, 

"E. Rex."* 

Edward was perhaps indulged with the company of his 
young friend Barnaby to amuse him and divert his 
thoughts from his discontent at being restrained from 
all intercourse with his uncle, the lord admiral, and 
the queen dowager. A secret correspondence was, 
however, carried on through Fowler, but this was done 
with great difficulty, so vigilantly was he watched. "And 
whereas," writes Fowler to the admiral, "in my last letter 
to your lordship, I wrote unto you that if his grace could 
get any spare time he would write a letter to the queen's 
grace and to you, his highness desires your lordship to 
pardon him, for his grace is not half- a- quarter of an hour 
alone. But such leisure as he had, he hath written, here 
inclosed, his recommendations to the queen's grace, and to 
your lordship, that he is so much bound to you that he 
must needs remember you always, and as his grace may 
have time you shall well perceive such small lines of 
recommendation with his own hand."f The small torn 
fragments of shabby paper on which his majesty's 
stealthily scrawled missives enclosed in this letter were 
penned, indicate that his stock of stationery was at a low 
ebb, and not of the choicest description. The first of 
these royal autograph billets contains a brief request for 
money : 

* Harwell's Letters of the Kings + State Paper Office MS., July 

of England. 29th, 1548. 



280 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

" My Lokd, 

" Send me for Latimer as much as ye think good, and deliver 
it to Fowler. "Edwaed. 

" To my lord admiral." 

In the second he merely says, " My lord, I thank you, 
and pray you to have me commended to the queen/'* 

The juvenile monarch enjoyed the pleasure this summer 
of an aquatic excursion to Woolwich, to visit the largest 
ship in his navy, the " Harry Grace a Dieu," commonly 
called the " Great Harry," a vessel of 1,000 tons burden, 
carrying 301 mariners, 349 soldiers, and 50 gunners, 
19 brass guns, and 102 iron pieces. The lord admiral, in 
virtue of his office, did the honours of the " Great Harry" 
to his royal nephew, and afterwards banqueted him at 
Deptford, and as a matter of course brought him back to 
his palace at Greenwich, omitting nothing that was likely 
to delight him and his company. 

It is possible, from the close* proximity of the places, 
that this attractive expedition might be undertaken by 
Edward, without the cognizance of Somerset, through the 
indulgence of the lord chamberlain, the earl of Arundel, a 
Roman Catholic nobleman, for we find the sum of " four- 
teen shillings and fourpence, the hire of two boats for one 
day for this purpose, was paid by him, and that Philip 
Mainwaring, one of the king's gentlemen ushers, two 
grooms of the chamber, one groom of the wardrobe, 
and one groom porter, were employed to make ready," 
and there are no evidences of its being a state visit. 

The excessive jealousy with which Somerset strove to 
prevent private intercourse between his younger brother 
and their royal nephew, was not without reason, for the 
admiral was taking determined measures for supplanting 
him in his office, and that undoubtedly with the full know- 
ledge of the young king, whose feeling towards his eldest 
uncle is testified by the following revelation from his own 
lips, when subsequently confessing the particulars of a 

* State Paper Office MS. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 281 

secret discourse between the lord admiral and himself, in 
the course of which the admiral had said, " Your uncle is 
old and not likely to live long." " I answered," deposed 
Edward, "it were better that he should die."* A rejoinder 
which proves that "our young Josiah," as it was the 
fashion to term him, had inherited enough of the fierce 
Tudor blood to render him dangerous to any one who 
presumed to apply the bridle and the curb too tightly. 
Among all his studies the royal science of history must 
have been neglected, or he would have been aware of the 
frightful construction too often placed on such words 
from the lips of royalty ; but although no immediate 
murder followed the startling avowal of the boy-king 
that he desired the death of his uncle Somerset, the fact 
was duly noted and acted upon by a rival more wily and 
more unscrupulous than the rash unthinking man to 
whom they were spoken. 

The admiral had among his other imprudent speeches 
said, "My brother is wondrous hot in helping every 
man to his right, saving me. He maketh it a great 
matter to let me have the queen's jewels, which, by 
the opinion of all the lawyers, ought to belong to me, 
and all under pretence i that the king should not lose 
so much/ as if it were a loss to the king to let me have 
mine own. But he maketh nothing of the loss the 
king hath by him in his court of first fruits and tenths, 
where his revenue is abated, as I heard say, almost 
ten thousand pounds a year. Then they" (meaning 
Somerset and his cabinet) " are at this point, there can 
neither bishoprick, deanery, nor prebend fall void, but 
one or other of them will have a fleece of it. But it 
will all come in again when the king cometh to his 
years, as he beginneth to grow lustily. I would not," 
added he, with a deep oath, "be in some of their coats 
for five marks, when he shall hear of these matters."f 

* Confession of King Edward ; Haynes' State Papers, 
f Haynes' State Papers, p. 16. 



282 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

It is scarcely to be supposed that he was silent on these 
subjects, in his clandestine interviews with his royal 
nephew, or that the juvenile sovereign did not occasionally 
drop hints on the abuses of Somerset's government, when 
fretting at the state of control and want of money in 
which he was kept. The admiral at last committed him- 
self so seriously in his intrigues that he was threatened 
by the council with the Tower, and proceedings on the 
charge of treason, in consequence ' of which he conde- 
scended to make submissions, received a large endowment 
of church property, was reconciled to his brother, and 
returned to Sudeley Castle, to await the accouchement of 
his royal consort, the queen dowager. Katharine gave 
birth to a daughter, and died seven days afterwards of 
puerperal fever. Though the admiral, to whom her 
life was for many reasons of the greatest importance, 
both on account of her rich jointure and her well-known 
influence with her royal stepson, and the Protestant party, 
behaved to her during her fatal illness with more tender- 
ness than might have been expected from, a man of his 
rough reckless nature,* he was accused immediately by 
his enemies of hastening her death by poison, in order to 
marry the princess Elizabeth. The improper freedom of 
his behaviour to the royal maiden, during her visits to the 
queen dowager at Seymour place, Hanworth, and Chelsea, 
had not only excited Katharine's jealousy, but given 
cause for scandal, f This was, of course, corroborated 
by the indecorous precipitation with which he sought 
to enter into a matrimonial engagement with Elizabeth, 
immediately after his wife's funeral. 

When the admiral came to pay his court to his royal 
nephew at Hampton Court, previous to the meeting of 
the parliament in November, while walking with him 
in the gallery one night, he found the opportunity 

* See Life of Katharine Parr, by Agnes Strickland, vol. iii, Li- 
" Lives of the Queens of England," brary edition. 

f Life of Elizabeth. Ibid, vol. iv, for full particulars. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 283 

of addressing these flattering words to the boy-king : 
" Since I saw your grace last, you have grown to be a 
goodly gentleman, and I trust within three or four years 
you shall be the ruler of your own affairs." To which 
Edward prudently replied, "Nay." 

"I marvel at your grace," observed the admiral, "for 
within these four years your grace shall be sixteen years 
old, and I trust by that time your grace shall help your 
men yourself with such things as fall in your grace's gift." 
But Edward, who now probably began to understand the 
selfish feelings which prompted these suggestions, or had 
heard more than he liked of his uncle's proceedings in 
regard to the princess Elizabeth, could not be induced to 
make the slightest rejoinder.* 

The admiral observed also to the earl of Eutland " that 
the king would be a man three years before any other of 
his age, and would of course desire to have more liberty 
and the honour of his own things, and if his highness 
desired him to make a motion to that effect to the lord 
protector or the council, he would undertake to do so." 

Somerset, being duly informed by his spies of the 
admiral's designs, sent a mutual friend to warn him "that 
he would bring himself into great trouble by his audacious 
courtship of the princess Elizabeth ; that the consent of 
the council was necessary for the marriage of either of 
the king's sisters, which would never be given to one so 
nearly allied in blood to his majesty, as it would be to the 
manifest peril of his majesty and his realm ; that his 
pretensions and conduct were cause of great disparage- 
ment to her grace, and if he ever presumed to resort to 
her again, he should be clapped up in the Tower."f 
The duchess of Somerset also sent word to Elizabeth's 
governess, Mrs. Katharine Astley, who had allowed her 
young royal pupil to be out late of an evening on the 
Thames with this perilous wooer, " that she was not fit to 

* Letter of the lord admiral to the protector, Somerset, from the Tower, 
f Hayne's State Papers. 



284 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

have the charge of a king's daughter." Greater caution 
therefore became necessary, and for fear of the ill 
consequences with which he was menaced, the admiral 
pretended to have given up all thoughts of this 
lofty marriage. He continued, however, to pursue other 
schemes no less dangerous and displeasing to his brother 
the protector. He had gained over the marquis and mar- 
chioness of Dorset to his party, by engaging to marry 
their daughter, lady Jane Gray, to the king, and with 
this favourite project in view, he had persuaded them 
to confide her to his keeping. This they had not 
scrupled to do during the life of the queen dowager, 
but after her decease they were desirous of reclaiming 
lady Jane. The lord admiral, however, obliged the lord 
marquis with a loan of <£2,000, which he had himself 
been under the necessity of borrowing of his confederate, 
sir William Sherrington, the master of the mint at 
Bristol. His project of marrying the king* to his learned 
and charming cousin, lady Jane Gray, offended and 
crossed the policy of the duke of Somerset in two of the 
favourite objects of his ambition, for, in the first place, he 
intended his own daughter, lady Jane Seymour, for the 
king's wife, and was educating her for that express 
purpose ; and in the next he meant to marry his son, the 
earl of Hertford, to the lady Jane Gray.f 

Among other wild schemes, the admiral had plotted to 
get possession of the king's person and carry him off to 
his castle of Holt in Denbighshire, which he had victualled 
and garrisoned in readiness, if necessary, to stand a siege. 
He had devised, through his confederate Fowler and others 
of the king's privy chamber, for his royal nephew to be 
brought by night through the gallery into his apartments, 
whence, as he possessed a master key to all the locks in 
the privy gardens, he fancied it would not be difficult to 
abduct and carry him to Holt Castle. His accomplice 
Sherrington had promised to advance £10,000, which 
* Ibid. f Depositions in Haynes' State Papers. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 285 

he had coined in light money for that purpose to pay 
the wages, at the rate of sixpence per day, for each 
man of the military force, the admiral had secretly pre- 
pared to assist in his enterprise.* The admiral had formed 
an extensive confederacy among the nobility, and expected, 
as soon as he had got possession of the king's person, so 
that he might have the sanction of the royal name, to be 
joined by a formidable army of malcontents in several of 
the counties of England, which were then on the verge of 
revolt against the authority of the protector Somerset. 
The game for life and power between the ^brothers was 
closely fought ; but Somerset being in actual possession of 
the authority and resources of the crown, struck the first 
blow by arresting the lord admiral and committing him 
to the Tower on the 19th of January, 1549. 

The immediate cause which led to this sudden resolve, 
and not only broke the secret alliance between the young 
king and his best loved uncle, but for ever alienated 
his affection, by affording a strange though deceptive 
corroboration of the denunciations of his fraternal foe, 
"that the lord admiral had clandestinely wooed the 
princess Elizabeth, and raised troops for the purpose of 
dethroning his royal sovereign and seizing the crown as 
her husband," appears not on the surface of history, but 
is clearly enough explained by the following incident 
which had the night previously occurred in the palace. 

The admiral, who had in the course of the day received 
a hint "that his brother the protector, having penetrated 
his daring design, intended to arrest and commit him 
to the Tower forthwith," sought a secret conference 
with Edward in his bed-chamber at midnight on the 
18th of January, either to devise with him some plan 
whereby he might circumvent Somerset's intention, or 
perhaps to persuade his royal nephew to put himself 
into his hands, by stealing away from the palace with 
him under cover of darkness, and fleeing with him into 

* Ibid. 



286 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Wales, where lie had got everything ready for his recep- 
tion at Holt Castle. By means of his master key, the 
admiral entered the gallery leading to the royal bed- 
chamber, which was, as is usual in all palatial abodes, 
approached by double doors, having a space between them 
for two of the gentlemen of the body guard to stand 
with crossed partizans to defend the entrance. Now it 
happened that on this eventful night, for some unexplained 
reason, neither guards, exons, or gentlemen of the privy 
chamber were on duty, and the young king, finding 
himself deserted by his attendants, had endeavoured to 
supply their place, by locking his favourite little spaniel 
between the two doors, and bolting the innermost, a very 
unusual thing. When the admiral, who was accom- 
panied by several of his confederates, opened the outer 
door with his master key, the faithful little animal barked 
violently and attacked him. The admiral, infuriated at 
this unexpected opposition and the danger it involved, 
instantly gave him his quietus by killing him on the 
spot; but the noise had already alarmed one of the 
attendants, who, having summoned the guards, and 
finding the admiral at the door of the royal bed- 
chamber, which being bolted within defied his efforts 
to open it, sternly demanded, " What business he had 
there at the dead of night ?" He answered, in some con- 
fusion, that he had come to see whether his majesty 
were safely guarded at nights. The 'next morning he 
was sent to the Tower.* 

The construction placed on this mysterious nocturnal 
visit, and the slaughter of his faithful little dog, together 
with the expose that immediately followed in regard to 
the princess Elizabeth, and the injurious reports that were 
industriously circulated that the late queen, Katharine 
Parr, for whom Edward cherished a filial regard, had 
not come fairly by her death, may well explain the 

* John Burcher to Henry Buliin- ters, published by the Parker So- 
ger, Feb. 15, 1549. Original Let- ciety, vol. ii, 648. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 287 

reason why he made no effort to save the life of this 
his favourite uncle, but desired that justice might take 
its course. 

The inexperienced young monarch must have been 
taught to regard him as the most profligate and un- 
principled of men, who had dared to use unlicensed 
personal freedoms with his young royal sister, the 
princess Elizabeth, while he was a married man, and she 
living under the protection of his wife, whose death he was 
said to have hastened in order to remove so inconvenient 
an obstacle to his marriage with her royal step-daughter. 
Then, almost before she was cold in her grave, he had 
pursued his presumptuous and indeed illegal courtship, 
to the great scandal and disparagement of Elizabeth ; 
and when compelled by the council and protector to 
desist, had raised troops and coined money for trea- 
sonable purposes — it was alleged for the deposition and 
murder of his lawful sovereign, and the usurpation of 
the crown, as the husband of his sister the princess 
Elizabeth. Moreover, he had sworn with a deep and 
profane oath, "that he would make the present the 
blackest parliament that ever sat in England if his 
presumptuous desires were thwarted. 5 ' 

The protector and council having drawn up thirty-three 
articles against the lord admiral, among which were 
accusations of his "having abused his high office at the 
admiralty by going shares with pirates in their unlawful 
gains, and by denying justice to the foreign merchants 
when they had been plundered, injuring commerce, and 
risking embroiling the king in wars with other nations," 
with many other charges equally disgraceful to him, 
required him to answer thereto ; but he refused to answer 
to the commissioners who went to examine him, and 
demanded an open trial. This suited not the policy of 
the protector and his party. They decided on proceeding 
by the more convenient progress of a bill of attainder ; 
and child though he were, to implicate the poor little king 



288 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

in the transaction, by obtaining, if possible, bis personal 
assent to their vindictive and unconstitutional proceedings 
for shedding his uncle's blood. Accordingly, the lord 
protector and his supporters in the council waited on his 
majesty on the 24th of February, immediately after he 
had taken his dinner, and having formally recited to him 
the startling list of treasons, felonies, and other misde- 
meanours, they had prepared against the lord admiral, 
together with his contumacious refusal to reply to any of 
the questions they had deputed their commissioners to 
administer to him on the preceding day, they required 
his majesty's permission to proceed against him according 
to justice. Then the lords of the council declared their 
opinions of the lord admiral's guilt, and the protector, as 
the last speaker, observed, "that it was a sorrowful case to 
him, but being more bound to regard his duty to his 
sovereign and the crown of England than the case of 
either his own brother or son, weighing his allegiance 
more than his blood, therefore he could not in conscience 
oppose the opinions and request of the other lords ; but 
if his majesty would consent he should be content ; for if 
he himself were to commit such offences against his 
majesty he should not consider himself worthy of life." 
The young king having listened attentively, promptly re- 
plied, " We do perceive that there are great things which 
are objected and laid to my lord admiral mine uncle, 
and that they tend to treason ; and we perceive that you 
require but justice to be done. We think it reasonable, 
and we will that you proceed according to your request."* 
Having anticipated some trouble from the supposed 
affection of the young king to the uncle from whom he 
had received so many clandestine indulgences, they over- 
whelmed the royal boy with laudations for giving him up 
to their tender mercies, f and proceeded to bring an act of 
attainder against him through both houses of parliament. 
It passed without opposition, and received the royal 
* Register of the Privy Council. f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 289 

assent on the 10th of March, for Edward, being now- 
persuaded that the admiral was the most unscrupulous of 
traitors, and the worst of men, made no opposition to his 
doom. It would probably have been perfectly unavailing 
if he had. The admiral, who had vainly demanded the 
privilege of a trial, had no opportunity of disproving the 
crimes, treasons, and felonies, laid to his charge by his 
fraternal rival, and they were established by the hardihood 
of assertion. He appears to have been a dangerous and 
unprincipled man, but if there had been substantial evi- 
dence of his guilt, there can be no doubt that he would 
have been arraigned and tried by his peers. He was 
beheaded on Tower Hill, on the 20th of March, protesting 
against the injustice and illegality of his sentence. 

The verbal accusations and insinuations that were 
poured into the ear of the young king against the lord 
admiral, were, of course, far worse than the written 
articles on which he had been condemned, and so con- 
trived as to force a strange analogy between his alleged 
doings and those of the usurping uncle and murderer of 
Edward V., Eichard of Gloucester, even to the alleged 
poisoning of his consort, for the purpose of making a title 
to the throne by an illegal marriage with the sister of his 
royal victims. The midnight attempt of the admiral to 
enter his bed chamber, and the slaughter of the faithful 
little dog that had defended it, were coincidences only too 
well calculated to corroborate the idea that the like doom 
which had precipitated his young royal kinsman and pre- 
decessor, Edward V., from a throne into a nameless grave 
had been intended for him. 

The tragedy was not, as now, obscured by the oblivious 
shadows of nearly four centuries, nor partially discredited 
by the paradoxical plausibilities of Historic Doubts. It 
was of too recent date to have lost any portion of its 
startling reality. Scarcely sixty-seven years had elapsed 
since the cry of vengeance, for the blood of her fair young 
king and his infant brother, had rung through England 

19 



290 EDWARD THE SIXTH* 

against their murderer. The confessions of sir James 
Tyrell, and the assistant ruffians, Dighton and Forest, 
were fresh in remembrance. The contemporary chronicler 
of that thrilling portion of English history, the venerable 
Polydore Vergil, who had gathered his narrative from the 
lips of cardinal Morton and other competent witnesses, 
was still in existence, though now bending under the 
weight of upwards of fourscore years. The king had 
seen and spoken with him face to face, guerdoned him 
liberally for his valuable historic labours, and granted him 
permission to retire to his own native Italy, where he 
desired to lay his bones, after devoting the strength, the 
eloquence, the learning, and the experience of youth, 
manhood, and ripened age, to record the events that ended 
in the extinction of the male line of Plantagenet, and the 
elevation of the house of Tudor to the throne of England. 
The particulars of the aged chronicler's conversation with 
the royal grandson of Henry of Richmond, and Elizabeth 
of York, have not been preserved ; but who can doubt 
that Edward VI. availed himself of the opportunity of 
eliciting all the particulars he could of the last royal 
minor of his name who succeeded to the fatal heritage of 
the English crown. 

Care had been taken, immediately after the arrest of 
the lord admiral, to occupy the attention of the boy king, 
on the preparations for a masque to be performed by six 
young persons of his own age and stature, in which he 
was to take a part and maintain his incognito till it was 
either developed by the action of the piece, or penetrated 
by the spectators. Sir Michael Stanhope thus announces 
the projected entertainment, and gives orders for the 
dances to the master of the revels. 

" Gentle Mb.. Ca warden, 

" My lord protector's pleasure is that you shall cause 
garments to be made for six masks, whereof the king's majesty shall 
be one and the residue of his stature. Send six other garments of 
like bigness, for torch-bearers, with convenient diligence, so the 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 291 

same be in readiness against Sunday next, at the uttermost, for which 
purpose his grace has commanded me to write these my letters to 
you accordingly. From Westminster, the 5th day of February. 
11 Your loving friend, 

"Mychaell Stanhope."* 

No doubt the dresses, music, dancing, speeches, and 
scenery were well got up, and with frequent rehearsals 
answered the purpose of diverting the mind of the prin- 
cipal actor in the pantomimic display from reflecting 
on the tragedy of his unfortunate uncle. Edward has 
briefly noted the fact, not the circumstances of Seymour's 
execution, in his journal, as a sort of addendum to the 
events of the second year of his reign. " Also the lord 
Sudeley, admiral of England, was condemned to death, 
and died the March ensuing/ 5 

Latimer, when preaching before the young king, which 
was only two days after the consummation of the tragedy, 
had the ill taste to allude to the unfortunate admiral, in 
a manner which respect for the feelings of the royal 
nephew, who sat publicly in the presence of his court 
and people to hear it, ought to have precluded. The 
following week he entered more fully into the subject, 
and declared "that the man died very dangerously, 
irksomely, and horribly," adding, "God had left him 
to himself. He had clean forsaken him. Surely, he 
was a very wicked man; the realm is well rid of 
him." 

To the like denunciations of his unhappy uncle, inter- 
spersed with discreditable anecdotes of his life and death, 
was the youthful sovereign compelled to listen, seated in 
state, in the presence of his court and people, week after 
week, till Latimer had delivered his series of sermons for 
that season, and the public penance, for such it must have 
been, to which Edward was pitilessly subjected, was 
brought to a close. Was it possible for him to forget 
from what source the funds for the pecuniary presents 

* Losely MS. 



292 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

with which he had guerdoned the preacher, in the pi 
ceding Lents, had been derived ? 

Latimer introduced the following passage, touching 
the unfortunate lord admiral, into the sermon he preacher 
before the king and court on the 5th of April : "He wouL 
have had the governance of the king's majesty. And 
wot you why ? He said ' he would not in his minority 
have him brought up like a ward/ I am sure he hath 
been brought up so godly, with such schoolmasters, 
as never king was in England, and so has prospered 
under them as never none did. I wot not what he 
meant by his bringing up like a ward, unless he would 
have him not go to his book, and learn as he doth. Now 
wo worth him ! — yet I will not say so neither ; but, I 
pray God amend him, or else send him short life, that 
would have my sovereign not to be brought up in learn- 
ing, and would pluck him from his book." 

Edward had been occupied during the winter and early 
spring, in writing a treatise against the Supremacy of the 
Pope in French, having in the preceding year collected 
and translated into French "Passages of Scripture 
against Idolatry," and " Passages of Scripture on Faith." 
These appear to have been done for exercises in that 
language, and had given him great facility in writing it. 
His treatise against the Pope's Supremacy is of a more 
ambitious character, and claims the importance of an 
original composition, by no means devoid of genius. 
Some of his arguments are indeed very forcible, but he 
indulges in a strain of vituperation of a most energetic 
character, according to the abusive fashion of the period, 
denouncing the pope as " antichrist, the man of sin," "the 
son of the devil," and an " old thief." Then in his zeal to 
prove that Peter was not the chief of the apostles, he makes 
him out a very sorry fellow, not many degrees better than 
Judas. The most lively passage in the work is the fol- 
lowing sarcastic contrast between the ever blessed Son of 
God, and him who assumes to be his vicar on earth. For 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 293 

theologian under twelve years of age, it is very sharp, 

id the antithesis cleverly drawn. 
q "Jesus wore a crown of thorns and an empurpled 
j\obe, and was set at nought by man ; but the pope has 
p triple crown, and is honoured by kings, princes, em- 
perors, and all degrees of men. Jesus washed the feet 
of his apostles, but the pope has his feet kissed by 
kings. Jesus paid tribute, but the pope receives all 
and pays nothing. Jesus preached, but the pope reposes 
in his castle of St. Angelo. Jesus healed the sick, 
but the pope rejoices in bloodshed. Christ bore his 
cross, but the pope is carried. Christ came in poverty 
to bring peace into the world, the pope's greatest plea- 
sure is to spread discord among the kings and princes 
of the earth. Christ is a lamb, but the pope is a wolf. 
Christ was lowly, but the pope desires to have all the 
realms of Christendom under his authority. Christ 
ascended into heaven, but the pope will be cast into 
hen." 

In his vehemence against the pope, Edward actually 
reproaches him with the promulgation of the six bloody 
articles, not being aware that they were framed and 
enforced by his own father, long after he had thrown off 
the papal yoke, and asserted his own supremacy as king 
and pontiff too, under the title of defender of the faith ; 
but the young royal theologian, who had certainly been 
kept in profound ignorance of this fact, says, " In the 
time of the late king, my father, when the name of the 
pope was put out of our ritual, he stopped the mouths of 
Christians with his six articles as with six fists. Seeing 
then that the pope is the minister of Lucifer, I entertain 
a strong hope, that as Lucifer fell from heaven into hell, 
so the pope his vicar, will fall from the glory of his 
papacy into utter contempt." 

Edward commenced this treatise on the 13th of Decem- 
ber, and finished it March 14th, 1549, just six days before 
the decapitation of his uncle, the lord admiral of England 



294 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

on Tower Hill. This remarkable specimen of juvenile 
royal authorship, is " dedicated to his dear and well 
beloved uncle, Edward, duke of Somerset, lord protector 
of his person, and defender of his realm." The MS. 
in his own hand writing is preserved in the British 
Museum.* 

Among the MSS. preserved in the university of Cam- 
bridge is a miniature bijou volume, with richly illumi- 
nated borderings and initials, being an English translation 
of "Paleario's Treatise of the Benefit of the Death of 
Christ." On the title page, which is wholly written in 
gold, is the date 1548, and there is this touching auto- 
graph inscription by the unfortunate Edward Courtney, 
earl of Devonshire, the son of the murdered marquis of 
Exeter, and one of the six persons excepted from the act 
of grace published at Edward's coronation : 

"To the right virtuous lady and gracious princess, 
Anne, duchess of Somerset, Edward Courtney, the sor- 
rowful captive, wisheth all honour and felicity." 

The translation and illumination were probably both 
executed by him, to wile away the tedium of his prison 
hours. The duchess had evidently sent the book to the 
young king, perhaps from an amiable desire of calling his 
attention to the hard case of his unfortunate young kins- 
man, who had been cruelly incarcerated in the Tower, 
under sentence of death, ever since the year 1541, for 
no other crime than being the grandson of the princess 
Catharine Plantagenet, daughter of Edward IV. f But, 

* It has been printed by J. G-. Henry VIII. that summer : *' The 
Nichols, in the original French, in king, before his setting out, be- 
the Literary Remains of King Ed- headed the mother of our country- 
ward VI. man the cardinal (the venerable 

countess of Salisbury) with two 

f Richard Hilles, the reformer, others of our oldest nobility. I do 

in his letter to Bullinger, of Septem- not hear that any of the royal race 

ber 18th, 1541, mentions the cruel are left except the nephew of the 

incarceration of Courtney and his cardinal and another boy, the son of 

cousin Pole, at the end of the follow- the marquis of Exeter. They are 

ing list of the sultanic doings of both children and in prison, and 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 295 

if so, it produced no beneficial effect on the fate of the 
luckless Courtney, although his royal cousin has written 
on the same page an edifying text, addressed to the 
duchess : — 

" Faith is dead if it be without workes. 

" Your loving nevew, 

" Edward." 

And also on the last leaf of the book : — 

" Live to die, and die to live again. 

" Your nevew, 

" Edward." 

What a pleasing page it would have made in the 
biography of the young king, if he had exerted his royal 
influence with his council to obtain the liberation of the 
hapless victim of his ruthless father's cruelty and injustice. 
But the appanages of the noble and wealthy house of 
Courtney had been parcelled out among the unprincipled 
accomplices of the tyranny of Henry VIII., who were 
too much interested in detaining them to allow their 
ingenuous young sovereign to become acquainted with the 
real state of the case, lest they should be compelled to 
restore his lawful inheritance to the despoiled heir. 

Precocious in his attainments as Edward was, he lacked 
the means of obtaining correct information in regard to 
the proceedings of his council, and like other royal minors 
was under the fatal necessity of seeing through the eyes 
of those who made him the unconscious instrument of 
their own selfish policy. Even in the present age of 
journalism, this difficulty was perceived by the younger 
sister of a youthful queen regnant, then in her girl- 
hood, who, impressed with the responsibility of her 
position, was endeavouring to elicit information on a 
subject of public importance from one of the great ladies 
of her household. The princess, perceiving that the 

condemned, I know not why, except their kinsman the cardinal." Origi- 
that it is said that their fathers had nal Letters, printed by the Parker 
sent letters to the Pope, and to Society, vol. i, p- 220. 



296 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



earnest questions of her royal sister were either evaded 
or equivocally answered, exclaimed indignantly, "Why 
do you ask her, madam ? Are not you aware that no 
word of truth is ever suffered to reach the ear of princes 
while in their minority p" 

Poor Edward VI., learned and virtuous as he 
was, was not exempted from the sad penalty of juvenile 
regality. 




Statue of King Edward VI. in Christ Church Passage, Grey Friars, London. 
Erected by the loyal alderman, sir Robert Clayton, in 1682. 



EDWAED THE SIXTH. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Book of Common Prayer established— Edward's theological tastes — His skill 
on the lute — Gracious behaviour to literary and religious men — Affection 
for his sister Mary — Agricultural distress in England — Peasants in revolt 
— Insurrection in the Eastern Counties suppressed by Warwick — Somerset's 
difficulties — Strong party against him — He takes the king to Hampton 
Court — Brings him into the base court to address the rabble — [See tail- 
piece to chapter) — Carries the king off to Windsor in the night — King 
takes cold — His querulousness and discontent — Arrest of Somerset — His 
foes wait on the king — Edward receives them graciously — Somerset sent 
to the Tower, forsaken by his creatures — His humiliation and fines- 
Edward opposed to persecution — Objects to sign Joan Boucher's death- 
warrant — His reluctance and tears — Somerset released, visits the king — 
Peace with France and Scotland— Magnificent fetes to French ambas- 
sadors and hostages — Edward crowns Garter king of arms — Holds festivals 
of the Garter at Greenwich — His questions and remarks on St. George — 
Wishes to depose him from the order — His scheme for altering statutes 
of the Garter — His courtesy to the duke d'Aumale — Hospitable treatment 
of French hostages — Edward graces the bridal of Somerset's daughter and 
Warwick's son — He removes to Greenwich — Goes to a naval fete at 
Deptford — Death of his grandmother, lady Seymour— Court mourning 
forbidden— Martin Bucer presents his book to Edward — Edward's statis- 
tical essays — Greek and Latin orations — Manly sports, archery, and tilting. 

Previously to the tragic episode of passing the bill for 
the attainder of the lord admiral, the attention of the 
youthful sovereign and his parliament had been engaged 
on the more important subject of establishing the refor- 
mation in England, by giving a legal sanction to the 
Book of Common Prayer, and rendering its use in public 
worship part and parcel of the law of the land. While 
this momentous question was yet pending, a discussion 
on the respective merits of the tenets of the old church 



298 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

and the reformed church took place in Westminster Hall, 
between four prelates, Cranmer, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and Farrar, bishop of St. David's, who supported 
the doctrines of the reformation against Heath, bishop of 
Worcester, and Thirlby, bishop of Westminster, who 
maintained those of the Church of Borne. The king 
and his uncle, the lord protector Somerset, were present 
at the controversy, which lasted four days, and ended 
as it began. When the disputants, finding it impossible 
to convince each other, broke up the conference, the 
duke of Somerset, who had anticipated a different result, 
turning to his royal nephew, exclaimed, "How much 
the bishop of Westminster has deceived my expecta- 
tions. 5 ' " Your expectations he might deceive," rejoined 
Edward, " but not mine, for I expected nothing else but 
that he, who had been so long time resident ambassador 
at the emperor's court, should smell of the Interim."* 
This bon mot from a youth in his thirteenth year, was 
considered very brilliant. Any other boy of that age 
would, doubtless, have found himself ineffably bored 
with listening to a four days' dose of controversy, but 
Edward had been reared on a hotbed of theology, 
had acquired a taste for it almost in his infancy, and 
all his faculties had been attracted to that direction. 
" We have a king," writes Bartholomew Traheron, 
"learned and pious beyond his age. If ever there 
existed a Josiah, it is certainly he ; a more holy dispo- 
sition has nowhere existed in our time. He alone seems 
to sustain the gospel by his incredible piety and most 
holy manners and prudence, altogether that of an old 
man."f After so persecuting and sensual a tyrant as 

* This curious term was applied to could be called to settle certaiu 

a temporary creed, based on the points which the spirit of reform 

articles of the Church of Eome, but in Germany appeared to render ex- 

in a more modified form to suit the pedient. 

temper of the times, and authorised f Traheron to Bullinger, Sept. 28, 
for general use, by the emperor 1548. Printed ia the Original Let- 
Charles Y., till a general council ters of the Parker Society. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 299 

Henry VIII., some allowance may be made for the 
enthusiastic feelings of the reformers towards the 
gracious young king his son. 

Thomas Sternhold, whose name is so familiarly con- 
nected with the earliest English metrical version of the 
psalms of David, was a courtier, holding the office of 
groom of the robes* to Edward VI., who patronized and 
encouraged him in his learned labour of love. Sternhold, 
no mean poet, versified forty of the psalms, which may 
readily be distinguished by their superiority to those 
paraphrased by John Hopkins, "William "Whittingham, 
and his other coadjutors, but the whole collection was 
edited by him, and dedicated to king Edward. It 
appears from a passage in his dedication, that Stern- 
hold was accustomed to sing these sacred lyrics to his 
young royal master, for he says, " Seeing further that 
your tender and godly zeal doth more delight in the 
holy songs of verity than in any figured rhymes of 
vanity, I am encouraged to travail further in the said 
book of psalms, trusting that as your grace taketh 
pleasure to hear them sung sometimes of me, so ye 
will also delight not only to sing and read them yourself, 
but also to command them to be sung to you of others. "f 
Dr. Christopher Tye, the master of the children of the 
chapel royal, and one of the earliest composers of English 
sacred music, stimulated, probably, by the young sove- 
reign's approbation of Sternhold's psalmody, commenced a 
metrical version of the Acts of the apostles, and actually 
proceeded as far as the first fourteen chapters, with 
musical notes appended to each chapter, arranged to be 
sung to the lute. This rare performance he printed and 
dedicated to king Edward, being intended for the especial 
edification of the youthful majesty of England to exercise 

* He had filled the same office under Henry VIII. Nichols' Literary 
Kemains of king Edward VI. 

f Sternhold died the same year this edition was published. Ibid. 



300 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

his skill on the lute, as he modestly informs him, in 
the following rhymes : 

" That such good things your grace might move, 
Your lute, when you assay, 
Instead of songs of wanton love 
These stories then to play." 

In Rowley's play of Henry VIII., young Edward is 
thus made to compliment Dr. Tye, his music master : 

" Doctor, I thank you, and commend your cunning. 
I oft have heard my father merrily speak 
In your high praise ; and thus his highness saith, 
' England, one God, one truth, one doctor hath 
For music's art, and that is Dr. Tye,* 
Admired for skill in music's harmony. 7 " 

Thomas Tallis, William JBirde, and Richard Farrant, 
were also among the gentlemen of Edward VI. 's chapel 
royal. The musical establishment of that youthful 
sovereign consisted of no less than 114 persons, besides 
boy choristers. 

The young king possessed several choice lutes, which 

were sent for him from Venice, where it seems the best 

instruments of the kind were made. A very costly lute, 

principally constructed of ivory, cost him one hundred 

crowns. He was very curious in his books, and a liberal 

patron, as far as his means permitted, of authors of other 

nations as well as his own. Cranmer invited many of 

the most learned professors of languages and divinity 

from foreign universities, to visit England, where he 

appointed them to livings and professorships. Among 

the rest, the celebrated Paul Fagius, who was presented 

at the court of Edward on the 5th of May, has given the 

following pleasing account in a letter to a friend, of the 

courtesy and intelligence of the juvenile monarch : 

* Of Tye it is related that one the verger to tell him " that he was 

day playing more scientifically than playing out of tune." " Tell her 

melodiously, on the organ in queen majesty," retorted the indignant 

Elizabeth's chapel royal, she got composer, "it is her ears that are 

weary of his elaborations, and sent out of tune." 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 301 

"Access to the king was granted immediately after 
dinner. I cannot express with what kindness wo were 
received by him, as well as by the lord protector and 
others of the nobility, and how he congratulated us on 
our arrival. This indeed exhilarated us beyond measure. 
Though he is still very young and very handsome, he 
gives, for his age, such wonderful proofs of his piety that 
the whole kingdom and all godly persons entertain the 
greatest hopes of him. May our good and gracious 
God preserve him in safety many years, that he 
may be able to govern his kingdom long and happily, 
and at the same time to advance the kingdom of Christ, 
which we all of us ought to entreat for him from God 
with earnest prayers/'* 

The young king, wise beyond his years, contem- 
plated a most important undertaking, in which he was 
desirous of obtaining the assistance of the most erudite 
scholars of the age, and forthwith availed himself 
of the visit of Fagius to secure his co-operation. 
"For it seemed good to his majesty, the lord pro- 
tector, and the archbishop/' continues the learned 
foreigner, "that we should translate the Holy Scrip- 
tures from the original into Latin, with some brief 
explanation of the difficult passages in each chapter, and 
the addition of summaries and parallel places. All 
which they wish afterwards translated into English for 
the use of the preachers and people."f It was settled 
that Fagius, who was professor of Hebrew, was to have 
taken the Old Testament, and Bucer the New ; but this 
most useful enterprise was prevented by the death of 
Fagius. 

The first edition of the Book of Common Prayer, since 
called King Edward's Liturgy, was delivered for general 
use on Whitsunday, this spring, 1549, and the mass 

* Dated Croydon, May 7, 1549. Original Letters, published by the 
Parker Society. 

f Ibid. 



302 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

was ordered to be discontinued.* Numbers of the 
people, however, disobeyed the act of parliament and 
the royal edict, requiring uniformity of worship, and 
clung pertinaciously to the rites of the Romish Church, 
and the creed in which they had been educated. 
Foremost among these stood Edward's eldest sister, 
the princess Mary, whose name and example, as the 
heiress-presumptive of the realm, infinitely encouraged 
the recusants, although she carefully abstained from 
anything in the shape of a factious or political demon- 
stration, contenting herself with refusing to give up 
the mass, which in spite of all remonstrances from the 
privy council and the protector Somerset, and the 
letters signed by her royal brother, she continued to 
use in her own chapel. This was, of course, repre- 
sented to the boy -king as a contumacious defiance of 
his royal authority, and a serious cause of offence. f 
An estrangement had taken place between Edward and 
his darling sister, Elizabeth, ever since the encourage- 
ment she was alleged to have given to the unauthorised 
addresses of his late uncle, the lord admiral. Scandal 
had been busy with her name, and she remained under a 
cloud for the residue of his reign, although nothing either 
of treason or impropriety had been proved against her, £ 
but it suited well the jealous policy of the protector to 
keep all whom the king loved best at a distance. In 
regard to Mary, one who knew her well,§ and had also 
the best possible means of information touching the real 
feelings of the young king, has testified that, " notwith- 
standing the political and religious differences which 
divided them, Edward was really very much attached 

. * Strype ; Fuller ; Burnet ; Foxe ; it will only be necessary to refer the 
Heylin. reader to that work, vol. iii, Library 

Edition. 
f As the particulars have already , „ _._ \ _ __. , A , 

v n j- il T-* «v 1 See Life of Queen Elizabeth, 

been related m the Life of Mary, m ?_ . ^ 

our first series of Eoyal Biographies, l > vo ' 1V * 

" Lives of the Queens of England," § Jane Dormer, duchess de Feria. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 303 

to her, and took great pleasure in lier company and con- 
versation, and would ask her many questions, promising 
her secrecy, and carrying himself with no less reverence 
and respect to her than if she had been his mother, while 
she in her discourse showed great affection and sisterly 
care of him. The young king would sometimes weep 
and lament € that things could not be according to his 
wish, for that his uncle did use her with too much 
straitness and want of liberty, and besought her to have 
patience until he had more years, and then he would 
remedy all.' When she was to take her leave he 
always appeared very sorry and loth to part from her, 
kissed her and called for some jewels to present to her, 
and complained they gave him no better for that pur- 
pose. This being noticed by his tutors, order was taken 
that her visits should be very rare, because they made 
the king pensive and melancholy."* 

The truth of this statement has, strange to say, been 
questioned, as if it were impossible for the royal boy 
to feel the natural instincts of affection towards a sister 
from whom he had experienced nothing but tenderness 
and indulgence from his earliest recollection. The person 
by whom it is avouched being no other than the grand- 
daughter of sir "William Sidney, comptroller of his 
household, the great niece of his nurse, Sibilla Penne, 
and the niece of his bedfellow, sir Henry Sidney, his 
own dear familiar playmate, Jane Dormer, " My Jane," 
as he used fondly to call her, before the kindly impulses 
of his young warm heart were crushed by the jealous 
control of hard - natured worldly men, who at last 
succeeded in converting one of the fairest and noblest 
works of God into the puppet of their selfish policy. 

The excitement caused by the divided state of the 
public mind on the alterations in public worship com- 

* Excerpt from the Autobiography of Jane, duchess de Feria, in Literary 
Remains of king Edward VI., by J. G. Nichols, printed by the Roxburgh 
Club. 



304 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

bined with the miseries caused by the long expensive 
wars with Scotland, together with the evils resulting 
from & debased currency and a starving agricultural 
population, led to a formidable insurrection of the work- 
ing classes in the month of May. On WhitMonday 
the counties of Wiltshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Somer- 
setshire, and Oxfordshire were in arms with banners 
displayed against the government, though professing 
the greatest loyalty to the person of their young king, 
and calling on him for redress of their grievances from 
the oppression of their rulers.* 

The enclosure of commons, in which cottagers consi- 
dered they had equal and unalienable rights, the selfish 
appropriation of church lands and hospital endowments, 
by courtiers, peers, and ministers of state and their 
dependents, had deprived the labouring classes in their 
districts of employment, and the sick and aged of relief, 
while the act for the suppression of vagrancy by inflicting 
brands, whipping, chains, and slavery on the home- 
less wanderers, whom the consolidation of small agri- 
cultural farms into great sheep walks, had turned out 
upon the wide world to starve, had goaded the spirit 
of the people to desperation. Ascham, in one of his 
epistles, speaking of the national troubles and insub- 
ordination, has this eloquent passage : " Who are the 
real authors ? Those who have everywhere in Eng- 
land got the farms of the monasteries, and are striving 
to increase their profits by immoderate rents. Hence the 
exaggerated prices of things. These men plunder the 
whole realm. Hence so many families dispersed, so many 
houses ruined. Hence the honour, and strength of Eng- 
land, the noble yeomanry, are broken up and destroyed." 
Latimer, the most energetic of popular preachers, thun- 
dered from the pulpit against this system, and those that" 
practised it ; and Somerset sent commissioners on his own 

* Hayward's History of Edward Scory's sermons ; Latimer's ser- 
VI. ; Sharon Turner ; Strype ; bishop mons. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 305 

authority to level the enclosures ; but this being resisted 
by the impropriators, led to scenes of violence and blood. 
For this emergency he called home the bands of foreign 
mercenaries, who had been employed in desolating Scot- 
land, to crush the insurgents. Martial law was proclaimed 
and executed in a very summary manner. Sir Anthony 
Kyngstone, the provost of the western army, aggravated 
the cruelty of arbitrary sentences by the facetious mockery 
with which they were accompanied. On entering the 
town of Bodmin in Cornwall, he told the mayor he 
intended to dine with him, and desired him to have a 
strong pair of gallows erected in front of his house. The 
mayor obeyed, and after dinner informed his guest that 
the gallows were ready. " Are they strong enough ? " 
inquired sir Anthony. " Yea, I think so/' replied the 
mayor. "Go up and try," said his guest, "they are 
intended for your own use," and forthwith caused him to 
be hanged. On another occasion, a miller having fled 
from the terror of his approach, sir Anthony ordered his 
man to the gallows, and when he complained of the 
injustice, bade him " be content, as the best service he 
could perform for his master, was to be hanged in his 
stead."* 

The most determined stand was made by the Norfolk 
insurgents, under the command of Ket the tanner. He 
assumed the title*, of king of Norfolk and Suffolk, planted 
his standard on the summit of Moushold hill, above the 
city of Norwich, and in imitation of the ancient East 
Anglian monarchs, ordered his regal seat to be placed 
under a spreading oak, and established courts of Chancery, 
King's Bench, and Common Pleas, and sat there to listen to 
causes and dispense justice. He called his sylvan canopy 
the "Oak of Eeformation,"f not meaning the' protestant 
reformation, which he and his Roman Catholic muster 
denounced as the cause of all the miseries of the people ; 
but a tribunal for the reform of abuses, and the redress 

* Speed; Hayward. f Blomfield's History of Norwich. 

20 



306 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

of the grievances of the peasants and mechanics, who 
had flocked to his banner, inspired with hopes of success, 
by the encouragement they received from the tradi- 
tionary quatrain belonging to that locality, which they 
regarded as a prediction and converted into a war- 
song — 

' ' The country hnuffs (knaves) Hob, Dick and Hick, 
With clubs and clouted shoon, 
Shall nil the vale of Dussindale 
"With slaughtered bodies soon."* 

What they might have done had they possessed arms, 
and an experienced military leader, is not so easy to 
decide; but they were a wild, undisciplined rabble, 
unable to maintain a contest with the veteran bands who 
had learned the art of war in Scotland, and were well 
equipped and weaponed, and led by so experienced a 
captain as the earl of Warwick, when he took the field 
against them, after the disgraceful defeat they had given 
the marquis of Northampton in the streets of Norwich. 
Ket, at the head of 20,000 men, while he occupied his 
impregnable position on Moushold, defied king Edward's 
authority, and issued proclamations demanding the dis- 
missal of the present council, the restoration of the 
ancient mode of worship, and many other matters which 
belong to general history ; but when want of provisions 
compelled him to descend into the valley of Dussindale, 
he was defeated with great slaughter by the royal troops. 
On the offer of a general pardon to all but the ringleaders, 
they all surrendered. Ket was hanged on Norwich Castle, 
his brother William on the Tower of Wymondham 
church, and nine others on the branches of the Oak of 
Reformation, f 

King Edward has chronicled the leading events of the 
insurrection in his journal, from the first outbreak in 

* Hay ward ; Speed ; Blomfield's Norwich. f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 307 

Wiltshire, to its suppression in Norfolk. A report of his 
death having been circulated in the midst pf these public 
disturbances, he rode in state from the duke of Suffolk's 
mansion in Southwark to his own palace of Whitehall, 
to shew himself to the people on the 24th of July. This 
circumstance he thus briefly notes : " In the mean season, 
because there was a rumour that I was dead, I passed 
through London." The false report was traced to the 
astrological calculations of Robert Allen, who had cast 
the king's nativity, and was in consequence sent to the 
Tower, where he suffered a long imprisonment for his 
offence. 

The protector Somerset had, in the first instance, 
announced his intention of taking the field in person, to 
suppress the insurrection, but for some reason — probably 
his jealous apprehensions of fresh intrigues to supplant 
him during his absence — he decided on remaining near 
the metropolis, to keep possession of the person of the 
young sovereign, and to issue with greater effect his 
letters, proclamations, and summonses in the royal name. 
This course, though politically wise, was personally injuri- 
ous to him. The victorious earl of Warwick became the 
popular hero of the day, for the skill and valour he had 
shown in the defeat of the Norfolk rebels, the moderation 
with which he had behaved to the vanquished, and his 
address in calming the excitement in the Eastern Counties, 
and restoring order, won golden opinions from all men, 
and encouraged him to enter the lists successfully as a 
rival to Somerset for the government of the realm. 

Somerset's position was one of unparalleled difficulty. 
The king of France had taken advantage of the domestic 
disturbances in England to break the peace and endeavour 
to recover Boulogne, that dearly purchased and proudly 
vaunted conquest of Henry VIII. Somerset was wholly 
destitute of the means of defending it, embarrassed as 
he was with the ruinous Scottish wars, an empty exche- 
quer, and a heavy foreign debt. His suggestion that 



308 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

" surrendering it to the king of France for a pecuniary 
consideration, would spare an unavailing loss of Eng- 
lish blood and English treasure," raised a storm of 
disapprobation in the council, and reports were indus- 
triously circulated of his treasonable inclination to sell 
the honour of his king and country in exchange for 
foreign gold. It was indignantly observed, that during 
all the time of public distress he was spending a hundred 
pounds a day on the magnificent palace he was erecting 
for himself in the Strand, having pulled down the London 
mansions of the bishops of Worcester, Lichfield, and 
Llandaff, and the parish church of St. Mary, at Strand 
bridge, to furnish the sites and a portion of the materials 
for his own mansion ; when these were found insufficient 
to complete the undertaking he had announced his 
intention of taking down St. Margaret's Church, West- 
minster, for the same purpose, but the parishioners 
gathered themselves together in great numbers, armed 
with bows,- arrows, staves, clubs, and stones, and so man- 
fully defended their church, that his workmen fled in 
terror, and never could be induced to return to the 
work of destruction.* He then appropriated and pulled 
down, for the sake of the stones, the steeple and part 
of the beautiful church of St. John of Jerusalem, near 
Smithfield, the north cloister of St. Paul's cathedral, two 
chapels, and the charnel house, towards the completion of 
his new buildings in the Strand, where Somerset House, 
so called in memory of him, now stands ; broke the tombs 
and monuments up, and carted the bones of the dead into 
Finsbury fields ; and so deeply interested was he in the 
progress of his buildings, that he deserted the public 
preachings to look after his masons, which neglect of 
sermons was affirmed both by Bradford and John Knox 
to have provoked the judgments of God against him.f 
Unfortunately for Somerset, his temper was so irritable 

* Fuller. f Hayward; Fuller; Heylin; " Letter to the 

Godly in London." Knox's Works, Wodrow edition, vol. iii. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 309 

and violent that on the slightest opposition to his opinion 
in the council chamber, he gave way to such haughty 
ebullitions of anger as disgusted every one. After the 
removal of his fraternal rival, the lord admiral, he does 
not appear to have felt the necessity of controlling this 
morbid excitability, which was aggravated by the diffi- 
culties of his position. His friend, sir William Paget, 
perceiving the enmities he was daily incurring by his 
overbearing manners, entreated him, in a most sensible 
and friendly letter, "to alter his demeanour, and listen 
with patience to those who happened to differ from him in 
the council, and not to give way to such choleric fashions ; 
for that formerly, if either king or cardinal had spoken to 
him in that way he would scarcely have borne it, and 
that from a subject, however high his position in the 
realm might be, it would not long be tolerated."* 

Who can doubt that the young king's dislike of 
uncle Somerset was provoked by the offensive and impe- 
rious manner in which the latter, at times, enforced his 
authority, and essayed to curb the high spirit of the 
royal boy, who was accustomed to the most slavish 
homage from every other creature in his court? 

Towards the end of September, Somerset, perceiving 
that a confederacy was formed against him, for the pur- 
pose of superseding him in the government of the realm 
and the protectorship of the king, withdrew to Hampton 
Court, taking his royal nephew with him, and published 
proclamations in the name of king Edward, calling on all 
the gentlemen in the neighbourhood, and adjacent shires, 
to raise forces and come to the defence of their king. No 
one of any consequence appeared in answer to these 
summonses, but a gaping rabble gathered round the pur- 
lieus of the palace. Somerset, on this, so far compromised 
the dignity of the crown and his own high office as to lead 
the young sovereign to the great gates in the base court 
of the palace, and make him address these supplicatory 

* Strype's Memorials. Also in Tytler's Edward and Mary. 



310 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

words to the populace congregated on the green without : 
"Pray, my masters, be good unto us and our uncle!" 
Then Somerset harangued them in a long passionate 
speech, declaring the danger he was in from the treason- 
able and murderous designs of his enemies. "But," 
continued he, still holding the king by the hand and 
directing their attention to the royal boy, "this is the 
mark they shoot at, and if I die this is he shall die before 
me," words which naturally gave deep offence to his royal 
nephew, and were afterwards brought as some of the 
counts in the indictment against him.* Being informed 
that the lords of the council were coming to Hampton 
Court the next morning, he armed his own servants and 
those belonging to the king, and about five hundred per- 
sons who had assembled in compliance with the letters of 
summons, and departed hastily to Windsor the same 
night, carrying the king with him. Edward's brief record 
of these events is worthy of attention, and proves that his 
opinion of his uncle was not very favourable : 

" The council, abou.t nineteen of them, were gathered in 
London, thinking to meet with the lord protector, and to 
make him amend some of his disorders. He, fearing his 
state, caused the secretary in my name to be sent to the 
lords to know for what cause they gathered their powers 
together, and, if they meant to talk with him, that they 
should come in peaceable manner. The next morning, 
being the 6th of October, and Sunday, he commanded the 
armour to be brought down out of the armoury of Hamp- 
ton Court, about five hundred harnesses, to arm both his 
and my men withal, the gates of the house to be ram- 
pired, and people to be raised. People came abundantly 
to the house. That night, with all the people, at nine or 
ten o'clock at night, I went to Windsor, and there was 
watch and ward kept every night. 

" The lords sat in open places in London, calling for 

* See Tytler's Edward and Mary ; Stow's Chronicle; Nichols; and Trial 
of the duke of Somerset. Howell's State Trials. 






EDWARD THE SIXTH. 311 

gentlemen before them, and declaring tlio causes of accu- 
sation of the lord protector. After which few came to 
Windsor, but only mine own men of the guard, whom 
the lords willed, fearing the rage of the people so lately 
quieted."* 

Edward wrote a letter from Windsor on the 8th of 
October to the lords of the council, expressing his "regret 
at hearing of their assemblies, and the opinion they had 
conceived of his dearest uncle, the lord protector. For 
answer whereunto," continues the youthful sovereign, " we 
let you wit that as far as our age can understand, 
the rather moved by the visage that we see of our said 
uncle and council, and others our servants presently with 
us, we do lament our present estate being in such 
imminent danger. * * * * Each man hath his faults, 
he his, and you yours ; and if we shall hereafter as 
rigorously weigh yours as we hear that you intend with 
cruelty to purge his, which of you shall be able to stand 
before us ? In our person we verily believe, and so do you, 
we dare say, he mindeth no hurt. If in government he 
hath not so discreetly used himself as in your opinions he 
might have done, we think the extremity in such a case 
is not to be required at his hand. Yet," adds the royal 
writer impressively, reminding them of the power of his 
prerogative in its noblest attribute of mercy, "lieth it in 
us to remit it, for he is our uncle, whom you know we 
dearly love, and therefore the more to be considered at 
your hand."f 

If this letter, which is of much greater length, were, as 
we are willing to hope, the genuine act and deed of the 
king, it may be regarded as a pleasing evidence of his 
desire to save his uncle ; but it was openly treated by 
Warwick and his party as the dictation of the protector, 
and their only reply to it was a letter to Cranmer, Paget, 
and Smith, members of the council with the king at 
Windsor, declaring "their resolution of removing Somerset 
* King Edward's Journal. f State Paper Office MS. 



312 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

from the office of protector," and requiring him "to dis- 
perse his force, leave the king, and surrender himself into 
their hands, to be ordered according to justice and rea- 
son,"* terms which had proved sufficiently ominous in 
regard to his unfortunate brother, the late lord admiral. 

Unfortunately for Somerset, the king, who had very deli- 
cate lungs, was suffering from a severe cold at the time of 
their precipitate departure from Hampton Court, and this 
was much increased by his long ride to Windsor on a damp 
autumnal night, when he ought rather to have been in 
bed and under his physician's care. His hoarseness and 
tendency to inflammation of the chest were further aggra- 
vated by the sharpness of the air and elevated situation of 
Windsor Castle. He was, withal, much discontented with 
his change of abode, and the seclusion from the usual gay 
resort of company and out-of-door amusements to which 
he was accustomed at Hampton Court, Greenwich, or 
Whitehall. With the querulousness of an invalid and 
spoiled child, he constantly exclaimed, " Methinks I am in 
prison ! Here be no galleries nor no gardens to walk in,"f 
nnd showed great impatience to be gone. 

Suspicions that his uncle the protector designed to 
make as evil a use of the power he had acquired as 
Richard, duke of Gloucester, had done in regard to the 
last royal minor, Edward V., had evidently been instilled 
into the mind of the boy king, for when Cranmer, Paget, 
and Wingfield arrived at Windsor Castle, armed with full 
power and force from the predominant faction to arrest 
Somerset, whom they removed from the room he had 
hitherto occupied next to the king's bed-chamber, and 
placed in a prison-lodging at the top of the high 
tower adjoining the gateway, under a strtmg guard, he 
seemed to regard them in the light of friends and 
deliverers. Nay, more, an almost instantaneous change 

* See the whole correspondence in f Letter of Cranmer, Paget, and 

Tytler's England under Edward and Wingfield to the council, Oct. 11th, 
Mary. State Paper Office MS. 1 559, MS. Privy Council book. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 313 

took place in his health and spirits for the better, at least, 
so testifies the letter to the privy council of those who 
did the deed, with Cranmer at their head.* 

" The king's majesty, thanks be to the living God, is in 
good health and merry, and this clay, after breakfast, 
came forth to Mr. vice chamberlain, sir Anthony Wing- 
field, and the rest of the gentlemen, whom I promise your 
lordships he bade welcome with a merry countenance and 
a loud voice ; asking ' how your lordships did ? when he 
should see you ? and that you should be welcome when- 
soever you came.' The gentlemen kissed his highness's 
hands, every one much to their comfort, "f 

On the morrow, October 12th, the earl of Warwick and 
his partisans came in a body to wait on the king, and 
humbly on their knees explained the occasion and order 
of their doings. Edward accepted their explanation most 
graciously, and returned them thanks. They had, of 
course, no difficulty in making out a plausible case to 
their young sovereign, who only completed his twelfth 
year that day. On the morrow, Somerset was carried to 
London, under a strong guard, and lodged in the Beau- 
champ Tower. 

The following is the pithy retrospect of these events, 
commencing from the time of his arrival at Windsor, 
recorded by the young king in his journal : — 

" Then began the protector to treat by letters, sending 
Sir Philip Hoby, lately come from his ambassade in 
Flanders to see his family, who brought on his return a 
letter to the protector, very gentle, which he delivered to 
him, another to me, another to my house (the members 
of the royal household), to declare ' his faults, ambition, and 
vain glory, entering into rash wars in mine youth, 
negligent looking on Newhaven, enriching of himself of 
my treasure, following his own opinion, and doing all by 
his own authority ; ' which letters were opened, read, and 

* Privy Council Records of the f Ibid. Ty tier's Edward and 

Reign of Edward VI. Mary. 



314 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

immediately the lords came to Windsor, they took him, 
and brought him through Holborn to the Tower." No 
symptom of incredulity is here expressed as to the truth 
of these charges by Edward ; no word of sympathy or 
care for the arrest, imprisonment, and imminent peril in 
which his uncle stood. The natural inference is that 
Somerset had no friends about his royal nephew, and that 
it was no difficult matter for his ill-willers in that court 
to persuade the royal boy to believe all that was alleged 
against him. 

"Afterwards," continues Edward, "I came to Hampton 
Court, where they appointed by my consent six lords of 
the council to be attendant on me, at least two, and four 
knights. Lords, the marquis Northampton, the earls of 
Warwick and Arundel, lords Eussel, St. John, and 
Wentworth; knights, sir Andrew, sir Edward Rogers, sir 
Thomas Davey, sir Thomas Wroth."* These four gentle- 
men of the king's privy chamber had their original salaries 
of fifty pounds a year increased to a hundred, in considera- 
tion of the additional care and travail they should have 
about his majesty's person. f 

On the 17th of October Edward rode in state through 
the city of London to his palace in Southwark, then 
called Suffolk place, where he dined, and after dinner 
made -master John York, one of the sheriffs of London, a 
knight. He proceeded to his palace at Westminster in 
the afternoon. He had new robes and trappings for his 
horse, of cloth of gold, and silk, expressly for this 
occasion. J 

Warwick, who appears to have acquired a singular influ- 
ence over the mind of the young king, was now the dictator 
of all affairs of state. Somerset was forsaken of Cranmer, 
Paget, Cecil, and all his fair-weather friends. Twenty- 
nine articles, many of them amounting to high treason, 
were drawn up against him. Intent only on preserving 

* King Edward's Journal. f Council Book, 

t Stow's Chronicle. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 315 

his life, which ho was aware was in great peril, he pleaded 
guilty, consented to make a full submission on his knees, 
and resigned without a struggle the protectorate, and 
all the great and lucrative offices he had monopolized." 
" The lord protector, by his own agreement and submission," 
records his royal nephew, " lost his protectorship, treasury- 
ship, marshalship, all his moveables, and near 2,000 pound 
land by act of parliament. "f Edward's estimate is far 
too small, for he does not mention the 200 manors which 
were seized at the same time, but afterwards restored to 
him . 

Somerset's imprisonment was shared by his brother- 
in-law, sir Michael Stanhope, first gentleman of the 
privy chamber, but evidently no favourite of the young 
king, on whose words and actions he was probably a 
spy, sir Thomas Smith, and two or three others who 
clung to his fallen fortunes. 

The Roman Catholic faction had laboured actively to 
promote the downfall of Somerset, under the notion that 
he was the great enemy of their cause, and they should be 
greatly bettered by 'the government passing into the hands 
of the earl of Warwick. This was far from being the case, 
for Warwick exceeded Somerset in the intolerance of his 
proceedings. He not only supplanted Somerset in the 
temporal power, but as the head of the ultra-protestant 
party. Hooper, after mentioning " his recovery by the 
blessing of God from a long illness " in April, enthusiasti- 
cally adds : " To tell the truth, England cannot do with- 
out him. He is a most holy and fearless instrument of 
the word of God."J 

Soon after Christmas the lord chamberlain was ordered 
to confine himself to his own house, and was heavily fined 
for some peccadilloes in his office, which are thus naively 
recorded by his young royal master : — " The earl of 
Arundel committed to his house for certain crimes of 

* Hay ward; Stow; Tytler. % Hooper to Bullinger; Original 

f King Edward's Journal. Letters, Parker Society. 



316 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



suspicion against him, as plucking down of bolts and 
locks at Westminster, giving of my stuff away, etc., and 
put on a fine of 12,000 pounds, to be paid a 1,000 pound 
yearly, of which he was after released." * 

The duke of Somerset was restored to liberty on the 6th 
of February, and all his property which had not previously 
been granted away to his enemies, or bestowed on their 
partisans, was restored to him ; but he was generally 
regarded as a ruined man, having been deprived of all his 
power and two-thirds of his possessions. He still retained, 
however, too much for his personal security. 

That eminent reformer, Hooper, was chosen to preach 
several of the Lent sermons before the king this season. 
He was highly pleased with the demeanour of the youthful 
sovereign on these occasions. Edward fixed his attention 
on the sermons that were preached before him, by taking 
notes of the most remarkable points they contained, and 
kept a book in which he afterwards entered his notes 
in the Greek character. This volume has disappeared from 
the royal library, where it was seen by bishop Montague 
in the reign of James I. He also kept a book in which 
he wrote the characters, according to report, of all the 
chief men of the nation, such as judges, lord lieutenants, 
and justices of peace throughout England, their way of 
living, and religions. This volume is also lost. 

Hooper writes in these enthusiastic terms to Bullinger 
of the young king : — 

" You have never seen in the world for three thousand years so much 
erudition united with piety and sweetness of disposition. Should he live 
to grow up with these virtues, he will be a terror to all the sovereigns of 
the earth. He receives with his own hand a copy of every sermon he 
hears, and most diligently requires an account of them every day 
after dinner from those who study with him. Many of the boys and 
youths that are his companions in study, are well and faithfully 
instructed in the fear of Glod, and in good learning. Master Coxe is 
no longer the king's tutor. He still remains his almoner. f 
* King Edward's Journal. 
f Original Letter -s, printed by the Parker Society. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 317 

Iii another letter Hooper tells Bullinger " that he should 
have presented his book to the king had it not been for- 
bidden by the laws to lay anything before the sovereign 
from foreign parts without previously making it known to 
the council, until the king should have arrived at the steadi- 
ness of mature age." However, the marquis of Northamp- 
ton, Katharine Parr's brother, undertook to present both 
letter and book to Edward, by whom they were received 
with the greatest courtesy. He not only returned his thanks 
for the attention, but desired the marquis to send the author 
a royal present, in token of his good will and gracious 
acceptation. But' as he was assured by Hooper that 
Bullinger was forbidden by the municipal laws of his 
country from receiving presents from foreign princes, or 
anyone else, Edward desired to be commended to him 
with thanks for the book, and entreated his prayers both 
for himself and his realm.* 

Edward received in March, 1550, the present of two 
beautiful Spanish horses from the emperor Charles. The 
same day a German Lutheran sent to sir John Cheke a 
book that had lately been put forth against the sacra- 
mentarians and anabaptists ; and gave it to the king 
to read, but it no wise pleased him.f 

The gentle, refined, and truly Christian nature of the 
young king was greatly opposed to the horrible system 
prevalent in that period, of persecuting to the death on the 
score of differences in religious opinions. " Insomuch," 
says Foxe the martyrologist, " that when Joane Boucher 
should have been burned, all the council could not move 
him to put to his hand, but were fain to get Dr. Cranmer 
to persuade with him, and yet neither could he with much 
labour induce the king so to do, (his majesty) saying, 
' What, my lord, will ye have me send her quick to the 
devil in her error ? ' So that Dr. Cranmer himself confessed 
' that he never had so much to do in all his life, as to cause 

* Hooper to Bullinger, Original Letters printed by the Parker Society, 
f Ibid. 



318 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

the king to put to his hand/ (his majesty) saying, ' that 
he would lay all the charge on Cranmer before God.' " 

Strype and some other historians have disputed the 
fact, but it seems that the conscientious repugnance of 
the young king to authorising the cruel sentence of 
this unhappy woman had deferred its execution for 
eleven months ; and when he did at last set his hand to 
the fatal paper, it was with floods of tears.* It has 
been asserted by two of our erudite contemporaries, 
"that the signatures of the council would have been 
sufficient without that of the king ; " but the council, 
as in regard to their proceedings for the deaths of both 
his uncles, chose to have the royal assent for their 
own iniquities whenever they had a deed of peculiar 
turpitude to accomplish. 

Articles of peace between England and France were 
concluded this spring, one of the principal conditions 
being the restoration of Boulogne to the king of France 
for the pecuniary consideration of 400,000 crowns, a 
transaction which afforded the precedent for Charles the 
Second's sale of Dunkirk, to obviate the ruinous expense 
and loss of blood in the vain attempt of preserving so 
useless an acquisition. A peace with Scotland was also 
arranged and proclaimed in London, together with the 
pacification with France, March 30th, 1550, for which 
general thanksgivings were offered up throughout the 
realm. Edward removed from Westminster to Greenwich 
on the 5th of April. He received his uncle, the duke of 
Somerset, with great cordiality at his court, and invited 
him to become a resident in his palace once more. On the 
10th, Somerset was again admitted into the privy council, 
and a reconciliation was effected between him and the earl 
of Warwick, to be cemented by a marriage between the 
heir of Warwick and the eldest daughter of Somerset. 

Six young noblemen of the highest rank were 

* Her error was asserting that virgin, but his nature was wholly 
Christ took not flesh of the blessed divine, without any humanity. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 319 

exchanged by England and France, as hostages for the 
fulfilment of the treaty, as regarded the articles for the 
surrender of Boulogne by England, and the payment of the 
sum covenanted by Franco in return.* As the marquis de 
Maine, brother of the queen mother of Scotland, the duke 
d'Enghien, the vidame of Chartres, M. de Montmorenci, 
the son of the constable of France, M. de Tremouille, 
and M. de Henaudiere, were some of them of princely 
degree, Edward treated them with the greatest distinction, 
and commissioned the earl of Rutland, lord Gray of 
Wilton, and lord Braye, with twenty other gentlemen, to 
meet them, with a retinue of 100 men, at Blackheath, 
and conduct them to London, where separate residences 
were appointed for each of them to keep house, and 
every kind of honour paid them. They were brought to 
the court at Greenwich, where Edward received them 
most courteously, and made them dine with him. They 
were entertained with music during the repast, f They 
also enjoyed the pleasure of witnessing the solemnities of 
the chapter of the order of the Garter, which Edward 
held for the purpose of promoting Gilbert Dethicke, who 
had previously held the office of Nbrroy king of arms, to 
the higher dignity of Garter king of arms, to supply 
the vacancy left by the death of the herald in chief. 

Edward complied with the ancient custom, which re- 
quired the sovereign of the order to crown and invest 
the Garter king-elect with his own hand. This ceremonial 
he performed on the 20th of April, the Sunday before 
St. George's day, in the following manner 4 The 
king's sword being holden on the Bible, Dethicke 
knelt before his majesty, and laid his hand on the 
sword and book, while Clarenceux read the words 
of the oath. Then the said Dethicke, Garter - desig- 
nate, kissed both the book and sword, and after 

* Hayward, Heylin, Lingard, f King Edward's Journal. Privy 

Burnet, Sharon Turner. Council Book. 

X Anstys' Register of the Garter ; Sir Harris Nichols' Orders of Knighthood. 



320 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Clarenceux had read the letters patent of the office, a 
bowl of wine was handed to the king, who poured it on 
the head of the said designate, and named him Garter 
principal king of arms. Then his majesty invested him 
with his coat of arms, put his collar of SS about his 
neck, and placed the crown on his head. 

The festival of the Garter being kept with the usual 
solemnities on St. George's day, king Edward said to his 
uncle Somerset and the other knights when he returned into 
the presence chamber from hearing the sermon and assist- 
ing at the religious services in the chapel royal, " I pray 
you, my lords, who is St. George that we so honour him?" 
The lords were too much taken by surprise at this ques- 
tion to be able to deliver an extempore biography of the 
tutelary saint of their order, for the information of their 
learned young sovereign, whom they probably suspected 
of affecting ignorance on the subject for some sly reason 
of his own. The marquis of Winchester, finding the 
rest silent, took upon him to reply, "If it please your 
majesty, I did never read in any history of St. George, 
but only in Legenda Aurea, where it is thus set down that 
St. George out with his sword and ran the dragon through 
with his spear." The juvenile sovereign of the order 
was much tickled at the blunder of his pompous lord 
treasurer, and indulged in a hearty and prolonged fit 
of laughter. As soon as he could conquer his risi- 
bility sufficiently to speak, he merrily rejoined, " Prythee, 
my lord, what did he with his sword the while ? n The 
marquis, not perceiving the jest, gravely replied, " That 
I cannot tell your majesty."* 

Edward had so little respect for the national saint, 
that in the scheme he drew up "for purifying the order 
of Popish ceremonies and observances," he went so 
far as to propose superseding the image of St. George 
on the jewel by the figure of a king bearing a drawn 
sword and the Bible.f That the order should be for 

* Foxe's Acts and Monuments, f Nichols' Literary Remains of Edward VI. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 321 

the future simply called that of the Garter, without 
any mention of St. George, and the festival to be no more 
kept on his day, but its commemoration transferred to 
some day in the early part of December, or else to 
Whitsuntide.* An addition was also proposed to the 
oaths of the knights, by which they were to engage them- 
selves " to put down men's wicked traditions, encourage 
learning, refuse the bishop of Rome's authority, and 
fight against his erroneous and pestilent heresies." The 
royal scheme was never acted upon. 

The death of Claud duke de Guise, the father of the 
marquis de Maine, occurring a few days after the 
arrival of the noble French hostages, the young mar- 
quis obtained the courteous permission of king Edward 
to pass into Scotland to comfort the queen-mother, Mary 
of Lorraine, for the death of their father, and he was 
sent thither honourably escorted at the king's expense. 
Claud duke d'Aumale, another of the Guise brethren, 
who, a few days afterwards, accompanied the French 
ambassador to England, was much pleased with the 
young English sovereign, and bore honourable testi- 
mony of his courtesy. The regard appears to have been 
reciprocal, for Edward promised to give him his portrait, 
a promise of which d'Aumale reminded the English 
ambassador in Paris, who wrote word to the council 
" that he thought it would be well bestowed." 

Our young bachelor king, who, up to this period, con- 
tinued to claim the little queen of Scotland as his 

* The learned editor of the Lite- iner having cited that custom in 

rary Eemains of king Edward VI., defence of the use of images and 

conjectures, with great appearance of saintly commemorations, by asking 

probability, that the unchivalric triumphantly in a letter to Eidley, 

desire of tbe juvenile sovereign of "If images be forbidden, why doth 

the order to banish the effigies of St. the king wear St. George on his 

George from the jewel of the Garter, breast ? but he weareth St. George on 

and transfer the festival from the his breast, ergo, images be not forbid- 

day on which he is commemorated, den. If saints be not to be venerated, 

was in consequence of bishop Gard- why keep we St. George's feast ? ' ' 
21 



322 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

affianced consort, in virtue of the treaty of betrothal 
which had been ratified between the late king his father 
and the regent Arran in her name, paid .these friendly 
attentions to her uncles, not only as a matter of courteous 
hospitality, but with a view of promoting his marriage 
with her and the union of their realms. 

A splendid ambassade of French princes and nobles, 
conducting M. de Chenault, who was appointed the resi- 
dent ambassador to the court of England, arrived on the 
23rd of May. "The king sent his galley, called the Subtle, 
royally fitted up with plate, tapestry, and all things 
proper for the occasion, and two pinnaces, to meet and 
receive them at the Nore, with an honourable banquet 
on board, and so conduct them to Durham Place, the 
nmnsion appointed for their lodging. The lord warden 
of the Cinque Ports, with sixty barges, met and bade 
them welcome on the water with every demonstration 
of respect. The next day, the two secretaries of state 
waited upon them with a message froni king Edward, 
inquiring whether they wanted anything, and when 
would be the most agreeable time for them to be 
brought to his presence. They named the same afternoon 
for their reception. They were accordingly conducted in 
state to Whitehall, where Edward was in his presence 
chamber ready to receive them, which he did with much 
grace, embracing them all in turn, according to their 
degree, read their letters of credence, and used them 
with such good words and countenance as gave them 
great satisfaction. The next day, "Whitsunday, being 
assigned for taking the oath of ratification, the marquises 
of Dorset and Northampton, the lord privy seal, and lord 
Paget went again with barges to conduct them to the 
court."* The noble young English hostages having been 
restored, the court was very fully and magnificently 
attended, both by French and English nobles. The 
king's majesty, after the communion and service in the 
* Mason's Letter Book ; State Paper Office MS. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 323 

chapel beneath, in the presence of M. de Chatillon, his 
colleagues, the privy council, and other spectators, read 
the oath and subscribed it. That day the French com- 
missioners, with the resident ambassador, dined with the 
king, and were by him most cordially entertained.* 

Edward's own account of that day's proceedings is thus 
tersely told: — "The ambassadors came to the court, 
where they saw me take the oath for the acceptation of 
the treaty and afterwards dined with me, and after dinner 
saw a pastime of ten against ten at the ring, whereof on 
one side were the duke of Suffolk, the Vidame, the lord 
Lisle, and seven other gentlemen, apparelled in yellow ; 
on the other, the lord Strange, Monsieur Henaudiere, and 
eight others in blue."f 

The following day, being Monday, 26th, their excel- 
lencies invited the duke of Somerset and others of the 
court to dine with them at Durham Place, " where," pur- 
sues our authority, £ " they feasted us as the market would 
serve, very honourably; and that afternoon they saw the 
pastime of our bear-baiting and bull-baiting" — barbar- 
isms in which we are happy to observe our young learned 
king took no part. On Tuesday, Edward invited them to 
hunt with him in Hyde Park, and that night they supped 
with him in his privy chamber. They went to see 
Hampton Court on the Wednesday, where they dined, 
hunted, and returned the same night to Durham Place. 
Edward quaintly notes on the " 29th. The ambassadors 
had a fair supper made them by the duke of Somerset, 
and went on the Thames, and saw both the bear hunted 
in the river, and also wildfire cast out of boats, and 
many pretty conceits. 30th. The ambassadors took their 
leave and departed ;" not empty handed, for the king, 
who loved to make presents, and was not now restricted 
in the means of doing so, caused rich and goodly presents 
to be sent to the chief of them before they departed. 

* Mason's Letter Book, State Paper Office MS. f King Edward's Journal. 
X Narrative addressed to sir John Mason. 



324 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

The next gay doing of Edward's court this festive 
spring was the bridal of his fair and learned cousin, lady 
Anne Seymour, eldest daughter of his uncle Somerset, 
and viscount Lisle, the heir of the earl of Warwick, 
which was solemnised at Sheen on the 3rd of June. 
Edward honoured these nuptials with his presence, of 
which he has given the following particulars in his 
journal: " There was a fair dinner and dancing, after 
which the king and the ladies went into two chambers 
made of boughs, where they saw twelve gentlemen, six 
on each side, run the course of the field twice over, and 
afterwards came three on one side, and two on the other, 
which ran four courses each. Last of all came the count 
of Ragonne, (a young Italian nobleman in the king's 
service,) with three Italians, who ran with all the gentle- 
men four courses, and afterwards fought at tourney. 
After supper, the king returned to Westminster" — 
rather a long ride for him after a fatiguing day of 
pleasure, for though he does not condescend to mention 
his exertions in that way, he must have trod a measure 
with the bride, and possibly with others of the fair and 
noble ladies present. His opportunities for entering 
into female society or dancing were so few, that this is 
almost the only entertairgnent in which that amusement 
is mentioned during his reign. 

The next day, sir Robert Dudley,* third son of the earl 
of Warwick, was married to the daughter of sir John 
Robsarte. The young king was present at this bridal 
also, and mentions the following barbarous pastimes 
which were practised on that occasion, instead of dancing, 
riding, running at the ring, or any of the chivalric 
demonstrations of the preceding day : — " There were cer- 
tain gentlemen that did strive who should first take away 
a goose's head, which was hanged alive on two cross 

* Afterwards so greatly celebrated the earl of Leicester, and rendered 
in the annals of royal favouritism yet more famous by the pen of sir 
in the reign of queen Elizabeth as Walter Scott, in " Kenilworth." 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 325 

posts." It does not appear that the young sovereign 
joined in this detestable amusement. 

Edward removed to his palace at Greenwich on the 
6th of June, and on the 19th gives the following account 
of an aquatic naval and military pageant, at which he was 
present, having a few days previously conferred the office 
of lord admiral of England on lord Clinton : 

" I went to Deptford, being bidden to supper by the 
lord Clinton, where before supper I saw certain stand 
upon the end of a boat, without hold of anything, and 
run one at another till one was cast into the water. At 
supper, Messieurs Vidame and Henaday supped with me. 
After supper was there a fort made, upon a great lighter 
on the Temps (Thames), which had three walls and a 
watch tower in the midst, of which Mr. Winter was 
captain, with forty or fifty other soldiers in yellow and 
black. To the fort also appertained a galley of yellow 
colour, with men and munitions in it for the defence of 
the castle. "Whereupon there came four pinnaces, with 
their men in white, handsomely dressed, which intending 
to give assault to the castle, first drove away the yellow 
pinnace, and after, with clods, squibs, canes of fire, darts 
made for the nonce, and bombards, assaulted the castle ; 
and at length came with their pieces and burst the outer 
walls of the castle, beating them of the castle into the 
second ward, who after issued out and drove away the 
pinnaces, sinking one of them, out of which all the men 
in it, being more than twenty, leaped out and swam in 
the Temps, Then came the admiral of the navy, with 
three other pinnaces, and won the castle by assault, and 
burst the top of it down, and took the captain and under- 
captain. Then the admiral went forth to take the yellow 
ship, and at length clasped (grappled) with her, took her 
and assaulted also her top, and won it by composition, 
and so returned home."* 

In the month of July this year, Edward, who must 

* King Edward's Journal. 



326 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

now have been in vigorous health to be capable of such 
an exertion, rode from London to "Windsor in one day, 
resting for a little while at the duke of Somerset's man- 
sion of Sion at Isleworth, where he dined. The exhila- 
rating exercise in the open air, and the recreation and 
lively society he had enjoyed with the young French 
princes and nobles, had been more beneficial to a delicate 
growing boy of thirteen, than poring over his classic 
studies and writing polemic essays. 

Edward gave to the German refugee reformers this 
summer the house of Austin Friars, in the city, for a 
church, " for the avoiding," he says,. " of all sects of 
anabaptists, and such like." The celebrated John Alasco 
was appointed their minister. John Hooper, who had 
pleased the young king very much by his last sermon, 
was in July nominated to the bishopric of Gloucester. 

There was great opposition among Edward's hierarchy to 
the elevation of Hooper to the prelacy on account of his 
dislike of the dress and ceremonials of the English episcopal 
church, and some peculiar notions which did not agree with 
the opinions of the most orthodox of the reformers ; but 
the duke of Somerset carried it against the other prelates. 
Hooper scrupled at the wording of the oath, and, indeed, 
the young king, when it was read in his presence, took 
immediate alarm at the manner in which, according to 
the old formula, the saints were included in the pledge. 
" What wickedness is here, Hooper ? " exclaimed he in 
great excitement, " are these offices ordained in the name 
of the saints, or of God ? " and immediately with his own 
hand erased the objectional expression from the oath."* 

This summer Edward varied his residences from 
Greenwich to his royal manors of Nonsuch, Oatlands, 
and Eichmond. He returned to Whitehall on the 16th of 
October. In that month his maternal grandmother, lady 
Seymour, died, and there was a long discussion in the 

* John Ab Ulmins to Bullinger, from Oxford, August 22nd, 1550. 
Original letters, Parker Society. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 327 

privy council whether mourning should be worn for her 
or not, by his majesty and the court, in order to testify 
respect for the memory of his majesty's mother, queen 
Jane. This was negatived for several considerations by the 
lords. ' 'First, ''they said, " because doole and such outward 
demonstration of mourning worn at all, did not at all 
profit the dead, but rather serveth to induce diffidence of 
a better life won to the departed in God, by changing of 
this transitory state ; secondly, because the wiser sort, 
weighing the impertinent charges bestowed upon black 
cloth and funeral pomps, might worthily find fault with 
the expenses thereof; and lastly, the great dislike sove- 
reign princes have to look on black, and everything 
reminding them of death,' seeing that their late sovereign 
lord king Henry would not only dispense with all doole, 
but be ready to pluck the black apparel from the backs 
of such men as presumed to wear it in his presence, for 
a king being the life and head of the commonwealth, his 
gladsome presence ought not to be dimmed with doleful 
tokens." * Then the duke of Somerset, who had intro- 
duced the question by the announcement "of the departure 
to God of his majesty's dearest grandmother," prayed 
the lords "to decide for him whether, under these con- 
siderations, it would not be more proper for himself to 
abstain from wearing mourning for the deceased lady his 
mother." The lords decided "that it would be more 
reasonable for private men to reserve the display of their 
private sorrows to their own houses, than to dim the 
gladsome presence of their prince with the sight of 
mourning," but referred the matter to the king's majesty, 
how the duke was to comport himself on that occasion. , 
Edward, doubtless acting by the advice of Somerset's rival 
replied, "that having ripely weighed the matter, he did 

* The above is from a curious MS. proceedings of that sederunt -which 

minute of Council in possession of sir are stated in a different manner in 

Thos. Phillipps, bart., of Middlehill, the Eegister, as if Somerset only 

from Harbin's collections, doubtless spoke of his own mourning, not of 

the original and true report of the a court mourning. 



328 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

especially dispense with the duke and his family wearing 
doole, such observance tending rather to pomp than to 
edifying." No mourning was in consequence worn for 
Edward's grandmother,* neither does he mention her death 
in his journal. There is no reason to believe they had 
ever met. Her nephew, lord Wentworth, was Edward's lord 
chamberlain at the time of her death ; he survived her 
about five months. He died in office, leaving sixteen 
children, a fact that is recorded by the king in his 
journal, but without any allusion to the relationship of 
this numerous family party to himself. Edward also 
records the fact " that sir Clement Smith was chidden for 
hearing mass;" but does not say that the offender was 
his uncle by marriage, being the husband of his mother's 
sister, Dorothy Seymour. 

Martin Bucer presented a book of his own composition 
to the young king as a new year's gift, on the 1st of 
January, 1550 ; entitled, " Concerning the Kingdom of 
Ghrist," setting forth "the miseries which had been 
brought on some of the German states by their sins and 
want of religious discipline, and recommending his majesty 
to take warning by their punishment, and to bestow his 
attention on remedying the like evils in his own realm, 
the enactment of such statutes as might be devised for 
the better government both of church and state." 

The death of Bucer, which occurred a few weeks after- 
wards, was calculated to add greater weight to his advice, 
but, Edward had already endeavoured to act upon it, by 
commencing a religious and statistical paper, noticing 
the various evils and abuses that had provoked the late 
insurrection, which he desired to bring under the con- 
sideration of the parliament then sitting.f It is, though 
only in a rough, fragmentary state, a very remarkable 
production for a boy of his age, and gives abundant 

* She was a lady of gentle birth. ter of sir John Wentworth of Net- 
and honourable descent, the daugh- tlestead Hall, in Suffolk. 

f King Edward's Literary Remains, printed for the Roxburgh Club. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 329 

proofs of deep thought and a living interest in the comfort 
and happiness of the people committed to his charge. 

The young royal author commences his essay in these 
words : — 

"The governance of this realm is divided into two 
parts, the one ecclesiastical the other temporal. The 
ecclesiastical consisteth in setting forth the word of God, 
continuing the people in prayer and the discipline. The 
setting forth of the word of God consisteth in the good 
discreet doctrine and example of the teachers and 
spiritual officers. For as the good husbandman maketh 
his ground good and plentiful, so doth the true preacher 
with doctrine and example print and graffe in the people's 
mind the word of God, that they at length become 
plentiful." He then, after alluding to a careful revision 
of the liturgy then in process, and the benefit its general 
use when thus perfected might produce on the lives of his 
people, recommends "that his preachers were to be selected 
not only for their learning but their good conduct, and 
that such men, by being rewarded and promoted in the 
church, would be an encouragement to others to follow their 
good examples." The temporal state he compares " to 
the constitution of the human body, in which every part 
has its peculiar and separate offices, none interfering with 
that of another." He objects greatly " to his subjects 
carrying on two trades at once," and speaks with some 
contempt of "farming gentlemen and clerking knights." 
The mischievous practice of under-letting lands at an 
enormous profit, which has been regarded as the cause of 
many of the miseries in Ireland, we find from this 
curious statistical paper then prevailed to a great degree 
in England, and is thus indignantly reprobated by the 
youthful sovereign: — "The husbandmen and farmers take 
their ground at a small rent, and dwell not on it, but let 
it to poor men for treble the rent they took it for." The 
evil to the rural population of large farms, which he had 
heard so often denounced from the pulpit by Latimer, is 



330 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

also mentioned by Edward with a sarcastic allusion to 
the assumption of agricultural pursuits by persons whose 
natural vocations were in a different line. " The gentleman 
constrained by necessity and poverty becometh a farmer, a 
grazier, a sheep master ; the grazier, the farmer, the mer- 
chant, become landed men, and call themselves gentlemen, 
though they be churls. Yea, the farmer will have ten 
farms, some twenty, and will be a pedlar merchant ; the 
artificer will leave the town, and for his mere pastime 
will live in the country ; yea, and more than that, will be 
a justice of the peace, and will think scorn to have it 
denied him, so lordly be they now-a-days. For now they 
are not content with 2,000 sheep, but they must have 
20,000, or else they think themselves not well ; they must 
[have] 20 mile square of their own land or full of their 
farms ; and four or five crafts to live by is too little, such 
hell hounds be they." Edward censures the mal-practices 
of the lawyers and judges with stern sincerity, and 
notices with deserved displeasure the scarcity and 
dearness of provisions caused by tradesman and mer- 
chants forestalling the markets, and buying up the 
necessaries of life to sell them again at an exorbitant 
profit. " What shall I say, then," continues he, "of those 
that buy and sell offices of trust, that impropriate 
benefices, that destroy timber, that not considering the 
sustaining men with corn, turn till-ground to pasture, 
that use excess in apparel, in diet, building, and in 
enclosure of wastes and commons." After a further 
recapitulation of these national abuses, the youthful 
sovereign proceeds to suggest the remedies to which he 
considered it expedient to have recourse. "These sores 
must be cured with these medicines or plaisters : lj good 
education; 2, devising of good laws; 3, executing the 
laws justly without respect of persons; 4, example of 
rulers ; 5, punishing of vagabonds and idle persons ; 6, 
encouraging the good ; 7, ordering well the customers," 
meaning, apparently, that unfair and fraudulent practices 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 331 

between buyers and sellers should be prevented by 
statutes for that purpose. After an appropriate quotation 
from Horace, Edward adds these golden rules for the 
improvement of the weal and happiness of his subjects : 
" Youth must be brought up, some in husbandry, some in 
working, graving, gilding, joining, printing, making of 
clothes, even from their tenderest age to the intent they 
may not when they come to man's estate, loiter as they 
do now-a-days, and neglect but think their travail sweet 
and honest, and for this purpose wold I wish that 
artificers and other were either commanded to bring up 
their sons in like trade, or else have some places appointed 
them in every good town where they should be 'prentices 
and bound to certain kind of conditions. Also that these 
vagabonds that take children and teach them to beg, 
should according to their demerits be worthily punished." 

Placing such children in an establishment under the 
control of the government, the boys to be brought up 
for soldiers or seamen, and the girls to be instructed in 
some useful handicraft, or the duties of service, would 
have been an excellent and paternal addition to the latter 
clause ; but Edward being only in his fourteenth year, 
had not matured his royal schemes for the amelioration 
of the evils he had witnessed during the four years of 
his infant reign. Instead of criticising the natural 
imperfections to be found in the writings of a boy of his 
age, we must admire the precocious wisdom and virtue of 
such a mind. 

" Devising of good laws," pursues the young king, " I 
have shown my opinion heretofore what statutes I think 
most necessary to be enacted this sessions. Nevertheless, 
I would wish that beside them hereafter, when time 
shall serve, the superfluous and tedious were brought 
into one sum together, and made more plain and short, 
to the intent that men might the better understand 
them, which thing shall much help to advance the profit 
of the commonwealth." 



332 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

How often has a wish for the consolidation and 
simplifying of the statutes of the realm been echoed, for 
the last three centuries, by the lights of the bench and 
the bar without being aware that the first suggestion of 
the expediency of such a measure emanated from the 
sound sense and premature judgment of a juvenile 
sovereign who had only just entered his teens. 

The persevering attempts of Edward's council to deprive 
his sister Mary, the heiress-presumptive to the crown, of 
the religious rites which she had been taught to regard as 
essential, and her determined resistance to the repeated 
interference in the form of her domestic worship, have 
been too fully detailed in our biography of that princess to 
require recapitulation here.* It is, however, necessary to 
mention that Edward received a visit from her at White- 
hall on the 17th of March, 1551, when, after their long 
separation, the royal brother and sister met in his presence 
chamber. She remained with him about two hours, and 
after partaking of a goodly banquet ^% .rtimmoned into 
the council chamber, "where," says 'the young king, 
" was declared how long I had suffered her mass against my 
will, in hope of her reconciliation, and how now being no 
hope, which I perceived by her letters, except I saw some 
short amendment, I could, not bear it ! She answered, 
' that her soul was God's, and her faith she would not 
change, nor dissemble her opinion with contrary doings.' 
It was said, ' I constrained not her faith but willed her, not 
as a king to rule, but as a subject to obey, and that her 
example might breed too much inconvenience.' " Such are 
the words in which Edward has recorded the proceedings 
in the council chamber ; but it is to be noted, especially, 
that he has struck through the words " against my will " 
with his pen, and that he carefully abstains from speaking 
in the first person, or even the second, indicating thereby 
that the declaration he mentions, though made in his 

* " Lives of the Queens of England," by Agnes Strickland, vol. iii. 
Library Edition. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 333 

name, was not uttered by his lips. It does not even appear 
that lie was present on this occasion. The same guarded 
and impersonal style may be traced throughout Edward's 
journal, whenever he records the harsh messages sent to 
Mary. This confirms her constant assertion that " he, 
good sweet king," as she fondly termed her royal brother, 
had nothing to do with the unkind and intolerant treat- 
ment to which she was subjected, first from the protector 
Somerset, and subsequently from Northumberland, who, 
from the time he succeeded in supplanting Somerset, fixed 
his ambitious regards on the throne, and did his utmost to 
irritate the lawful heiress of the crown into heading a 
Roman Catholic revolt, in the hope of bringing her to the 
block. The only wonder was that he did not provoke a 
war with the emperor, who took the part of Mary with a 
high hand, and had privately commissioned his Flemish 
admiral, Scipperus, to effect a landing in England to carry 
her off. Mary was too cautious to be dragged into the 
snares of eitfeffffcgd or foe. She was fully aware that 
her royal browj nd no intention of annoying her. She 
always kissevl ^B fcters, and openly declared "that any- 
thing offensive cJHreied in them proceeded not from him 
but his council, wjjj^interest it was to estrange him from 
her." The testimca^ipf a contemporary witness, so inti- 
mately acquainted with both Edward and Mary as Jane 
Dormer, satisfactorily corroborates these assertions, and 
throws a new and deeply interesting light on Edward's 
character. His opinions on the subject of his religion 
were very decided, and he knew well how to give his 
reasons for them ; but he was too amiable a youth, too 
good a christian, to be a persecutor. The cruel constraint 
that was put on his conscience, in regard to burning Joan 
Boucher, proves he was not his own master. 

A folio volume of king Edward's Greek and Latin 
orations, all transcribed by his own hand, is preserved in 
the British Museum. It is impossible to look on these, 
his Latin letter book and French essays, without the 



334 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

melancholy conviction that the enormous amount of 
severe literary labour and study to which the royal boy 
was doomed by his well-meaning but injudicious tutors, 
was the cause of his early death. 

Exercise and recreation are so necessary for the young 
that it is a positive refreshment to meet with such entries 
as these in his journal. " March 31. A challenge made 
by me, that I with 16 of my chamber should run at base, 
shoot, and run at ring with any 17 of my servants, gen- 
tlemen in the court." Better still on the morrow to see 
in his own royal autograph : "April 1. The first day of 
the challenge at base or running, the king won," and 
again on 5th, " I lost the challenge of shooting at rounds 
and won at rovers."* 

It was while Edward was holding his court in his 
palace at Greenwich, in the merry month of May, that 
the most important part of the challenge, that of running 
at the ring, took place in the park, between the young 
sovereign and the defenders, who were led by his cousin 
the earl of Hertford, one of the English hostages just 
returned home from France. The following account of 
their costumes and doings is from Edward's own pen : 
"May 3. The challenge at the ring performed, at the 
which first came the king, 16 footmen and 10 horsemen, 
in black silk coats, pulled (puffed) out with white taffeta ; 
then all lords, having their men likewise apparelled, and 
all gentlemen, their footmen in white fustian pulled out 
with black taffeta. The tother side came in all in yellow 
tafta. At length the yellow band tainted (?) often, which 
was counted as nothing, and took never, which seemed 

* Shooting at the rounds is shoot- place of their fall, with regard to 

ing at a target or any similar object the mark, determines the merit of 

circumscribed with circles, but at the shot. The person who wins has 

Rovers the mark may be a tree, a a right to propose the next mark, 

gate, or any other object agreed by so that the term seems to be de- 

the umpires ; the distance is greater, rived from the roving of the shooters 

and the arrows being discharged from one mark to another. — Pegge's 

with a considerable elevation, the Cueialia. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



335 



very strange, and so the prize was of my side lost. After 
that tourney, followed between six of my band and six 
of theirs. "* The tournay, we find from a contemporary 
account of " The triumph in Greenwich park," was fought 
with swords. f 




Gateway at Hamptou Court Palace. Page 310. 



' King Edward's Journal. 



f Machyn's Diary, page 5. 



EDWAED THE SIXTH. 



CHAPTER V. 

King Edward holds a chapter of the Garter at Greenwich — Sends the order 
of the Garter to king of France — Efforts of the young bachelor king to 
obtain a wife — Elected a knight of the order of St. Michael — French 
ambassadors sent to invest him — Poverty of his exchequer — Debt 
with foreign bankers — Festive day in Greenwich Park — Edward rides 
at the ring on Blackheath — Goes to a ship-launch at Deptford — 
— Entertains French ambassadors — His investiture as knight of St. 
Michael — Courses and shoots with French ambassadors — Plays on the lute 
to mareschal St. Andre: gives him a diamond ring — Negociations for 
Edward's marriage with Elizabeth of France — Haggling about her portion 
— Edward sends her a ring in token of his love — Invited to be godfather 
to her new-born brother — His costly christening gifts — Influence gained 
by earl of Warwick over Edward's mind — "Warwick made duke of 
Northumberland — Somerset arrested and sent to the Tower — Grave charges 
brought against him — Arrival of queen-mother of Scotland — Edward's 
hospitable arrangements for her reception — She comes to dine with him at 
"Whitehall — He kisses her and her ladies — He tries to persuade her to let 
him marry her daughter, Mary, queen of Scots — Their conference on the 
subject — His presents to his royal guest — Somerset brought to trial and 
condemned — Edward's letters to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick— Barnaby's reply 
— Splendid Christmas entertainments and masques devised to amuse 
Edward — Plays and interludes at his court— His love for horses — Present 
of rare horses sent him for his own riding by king of France — Tail-piece 
to the chapter, king Edward in his tilting armour. 

Notwithstanding the onslaught the young sovereign 
of the Garter had been encouraged by the puritanical 
party in his council to make, in the preceding year, on 
the patron saint of the order, he held a chapter on St. 
George's day at Greenwich this spring, with all due 
solemnities, for the purpose of nourishing amity between 
his realm and France, by electing king Henry II. a 
knight. He commissioned, at the same time, the marquis 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 337 

of Northampton, with other nobles, to proceed to France, 
with the robes and decorations to invest his royal brother. 
Business of personal import to Edward was connected 
with this ambassade. Our young bachelor king, now in 
his fourteenth year, having nearly arrived at the age at 
which his renowned ancestor and namesake, Edward III., 
entered the holy estate of matrimony, was desirous of 
obtaining a consort. He might have made a happy and 
suitable choice at home, having fair and virtuous maiden 
cousins, both of the paternal and maternal lineage, who 
had been educated expressly for the purpose of qualifying 
them for that honour, and were almost as learned, as 
deeply versed in theology, and as much opposed to popery 
as himself. There were the peerless lady Jane Gray* and 
her sister Katharine, cousins by the royal Tudor blood, 
and the ladies Jane and Margaret Seymour, the daughters 
of his uncle Somerset, who corresponded with him in 
Latin, and had already acquired literary and scholastic 
distinction by their verses on the death of Margaret, 
queen of Navarre. There was also a third Jane, the 
beloved companion of his early childhood, whom he 
fondly distinguished from those of loftier birth bearing 
that name, by calling her "his Jane," who, though she 
boasted no royal descent, was equal in birth to his own 
mother, or the late queen, his step-mother. But Edward 
would none of these ; for, like his sisters Mary and 
Elizabeth, his heart was too high to think of marrying 
with a subject. No, his desire was to wed a foreign 
princess, with an ample dower, and " suitably stuffed and 

* Speaking of lady Jane Gray, quence, that this most noble virgin 
John Ab Ulmins, in a letter from is to be betrothed and given in mar- 
London, written about March, 1551, riage to the king's majesty. Oh, if 
notices a very natural rumour then that event should take place, how 
in circulation, of a matrimonial al- happy would be the union, and 
liance in prospect between her and how beneficial to the church ! " — 
her royal kinsman, Edward YI. " A Original Letters of the English Re- 
report has prevailed, and has begun formation. Printed for the Parker 
to be talked of by persons of conse- Society. 
22 



338 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

jewelled/' papist though she might be. Very pertina- 
ciously did he assert his right to the hand of the 
only female sovereign in Europe, Mary Stuart ; " claim- 
ing," his representative said, "both the daughter of 
Scotland and her realm," in virtue of the matrimonial 
treaty ratified by the regent Arran, in her name, in the 
first year of her life and reign, although that treaty 
had been repudiated by her mother and natural guardian, 
who sent the little queen to France for refuge from such 
rough wooing. Edward insisted on the validity of the 
contract, and instructed his ambassadors, the marquis of 
Northampton, and the other nobles whom he had com- 
missioned to invest the king of France with the order 
of the Garter, to require that sovereign "to send the 
queen of Scotland to England for the consummation of 
the marriage;" but, in case of an unfavourable reply 
from that monarch, whose intention of marrying her to 
his son the dauphin was well known, our young bachelor 
king, being determined to secure a consort at all events, 
further instructed Northampton to open a negotiation 
for a marriage between himself and Madame Elizabeth 
of France. 

Edward having, in the meantime, been elected by king 
Henry and his fraternity a knight of the royal French 
order of St. Michael, the mareschal de St. Andre, and 
other nobles of the highest rank, were despatched to 
the English court, to invest him with the insignia. 

Great preparations were made, Edward states in his 
journal, for the reception and entertainment of these dis- 
tinguished foreigners. It was a time of great difficulty, 
for not only was the exchequer empty, but the country 
in great distress from scarcity of provision, and the 
reduction of the value of the silver currency, the shilling 
having been lowered by proclamation to tenpence, 
the sixpence to fourpence, and the groat to threepence, 
and an enormous and monthly increasing debt was 
incurred in Flanders with the house of Fuggers, the 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 339 

wealthiest merchants, bankers, and money-lenders then 
in Europe. 

We are indebted to the young king's indefatigable pen 
for the following specimen of their way of doing business 
with him : " A bargain made with the Fulcare for about 
60,000 pounds, that in May and August should be paid, 
for the deferring of it. First, that the Fulcare should put 
it off for ten in the hundred ; secondly, that I should buy 
12,000 more weight at six shillings the ounce, to be 
delivered at Antwerp, and so conveyed over; thirdly, I 
should pay 100,000 crowns for a very fair jewel of his, 
four rubies, marvellous big, one orient and great diamond, 
and one great pearl. " 

Sir Thomas Gresham, in the following year, acting under 
Edward's commission, succeeded in extricating him from 
these usurious snares, and obtaining money without the 
accommodation being burdened with the condition of 
heavy and inconvenient purchases of costly jewels, of 
which he had enough of his own. The presents which 
Edward was expected, for the honour of England, to make 
to the French nobles who were coming to bring him the 
order of St. Michael, were, however, obtained on credit of 
the Fuggers, for he notes : " Provision made in Flanders 
for silver and gold plate and chains, to be given to these 
strangers." Preparations were also made for a new dis- 
play of plate, to be used in his palace at Westminster, for 
the entertainments he had to give on the occasion of this 
visit; but these, he states, "were made of church stuff, 
as mitres, golden missals, primers, crosses, and relics."* 

Previous to the arrival of their excellencies, the 
youthful sovereign enjoyed a day of great pleasure and 
festivity, which is thus described in the journal of a 
contemporary : — 

" The 6th day of July, the king's grace rode through 
Greenwich Park unto Blackheath, and my lord Derby, 
my lord of Warwick, my lord admiral Clinton, and sir 
* King Edward's Journal. 



340 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

William Herbert, the trumpeters playing and all the 
guards in their doublets, and those with bows and arrows 
and halberts, two and two together, and the king's grace 
rode in the midst. And there the king's grace rode at 
the ring on Blackheath with lords and knights. The earl 
of Warwick met the king there with a hundred 
men of arms and great horses, and gentlemen in cloth 
embroidered. And the same night the king supped at 
Deptford, in a ship, with my lord admiral and the lords 
of the council, with many gentlemen." * The king's 
record of this festive summer day is very brief, omitting 
his own pastimes on Blackheath, but mentioning an event 
of far greater importance, the launch of the two new 
ships of war which were that day added to. his royal 
navy. "I was banqueted, "writes he, "by the lord Clinton 
at Deptford, where I saw the Primrose and the Mary 
Willoughby launched."! The latter was a ship of 140 
tons carrying 160 men and 23 guns. 

Edward removed from his sylvan palace at Greenwich 
to Westminster on the 7th, but only tarried there four 
days, on account of that terrible epidemic, the sweating 
sickness, which, after an interval of three -and-twenty 
years, revisited the metropolis this summer. "At this 
time," notes the young sovereign, " came the sweat into 
London, which was more vehement than the old sweat ; 
for if one took cold, he died within three hours, and if he 
escaped, it held him but nine hours or ten at the most. 
Also if he slept the first six hours, as he should be very 
desirous to do, then he raved and should die raving. It 
grew so much in London the tenth day, there died 70 in 
the liberties, and this day (the 11th of July) 120, and 
also one of my gentlemen, another of my grooms fell 
sick and died, that I removed to Ampton Court with 
few with me." As Edward generally omits the H in 
writing Hampton Court, we may surmise that it was 
not the fashion to aspirate it at that period, for we can 
* Machyn's Diary. f King Edward's Journal. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 341 

scarcely suspect our accomplished young sovereign of 
using cockneyfied pronunciation, as his manner of spelling 
the name of this royal residence would seem to imply. 

" The same night/' continues Edward, " came the 
mareschal, who was saluted with all my ships lying in the 
Temps (Thames) fifty and odd, all with shot well furnished 
and so with the ordinance of the Toure. He was met by 
the lord Clinton, lord admiral, with forty gentlemen at 
Gravesend, and so brought to Durham Place. 

" 13th. Because of the infection at London, he came 
this day to Richmond, where he lay with a great band of 
gentlemen, at least 400, as it was by divers esteemed, 
where that night he hunted." 

We should do our readers great injustice if .we did not 
relate the particulars of the reception of the French 
ambassador and his royal entertainment in the very 
words in which they are chronicled by the pen of the 
youthful sovereign in his fourteenth year. 

" 14th of July. The mareschal St. Andre came to me at 
Ampton Court at nine of the clock, being met by the 
duke of Somerset at the wall end, and so conveyed 
first to me, where after his master's recommendations 
and letters, he went to his chamber on the queen's side, 
all hanged with cloth of arras, and so was the hall and 
all my lodging. He dined with me also. After dinner 
being brought into an inner chamber, % he told me he was 
come not only for delivery of the order, but also to declare 
the great friendship the king his master bore me, which 
he desired I would think to be such to me as a father 
beareth to his son or brother. And although there were 
divers persuasions, as he thought, to dissuade me from the 
king his master's friendship, and witless men made divers 
rumours, yet he trusted I would not believe them. 
Furthermore, as good ministers on the frontiers do great 
good, so do ill much harm ; for which cause he desired 
no innovation should be made on things that had been 
long in controversy by handstrokes, but rather by com- 



342 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

missioned talk/ I answered him ' that I thanked him 
for his order (the order of St. Michael, of which he was 
the bearer), and also his love, and I would show like love 
in all points. For rumours, they were not always to 
be believed; and that I did sometimes provide for the 
worst, but never did any harm upon their hearing. For 
ministers,' I said, 'I would rather appease their contro- 
versies with words, than do anything by force.' So, after, 
he was conveyed to Eichmond again."* 

The investiture of our fair young English king as 
a knight of the royal French order of St. Michael took 
place on the 17th of July at Hampton Court Palace, on 
which day the resident French ambassador, Boisdaul- 
phin, accompanied by the ambassadors extraordinary, the 
mareschals St. Andre and de Gye and others of their 
suite, came to the king in his privy chamber about ten 
o'clock, preceded by the French king of arms, bearing 
the robes of the order wrapped in blue velvet, followed 
by the provost of St. Michael, bearing the collar of the 
order on a cushion of cloth of silver. Their obeisance 
done, the proposition being made to the king by one of 
the French gentlemen, he returned his answers to the 
ambassadors. Then the French king of arms and the 
provost of the order came to king Edward, and took off 
his gown and his jacket. The gown was of cloth of silver 
tissue, furred with black jennets, with three dozen 
buttons and aglets of gold, which gown and jacket, with 
his sword and dagger, were the perquisites of the provost, f 
After this, the two mareschals arrayed the king in a coat 
of silver with small fringe of gold, and over this the 
mantle, hood, tippet, and collar. After these ceremonies, 
the French king of arms, and Garter in his coat of arms, 
and the provost with the sword going before the king, 
who walked between the two mareschals, they proceeded 
to the chapel, which had been especially dressed, and 
prepared for this occasion; " where," records the young 
* King Edward's Journal. f Additional MSS. British Museum, p. 297, f. 7. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 343 

royal knight of St. Michael, " after the communion 
celebrated, each of them kissed my cheek. After, they 
dined with me, and talked after dinner, and saw some 
pastime, and so went home again/'* 

The mareschal St. Andre and the other envoys supped 
with the king the same day he was invested, and as this 
meal was served several hours earlier than our modern 
dinners are, they witnessed several matches at coursing, 
afterwards in the cool of a lovely July evening in the park. 

" The next morning," records Edward, " he came to 
see mine arraying, and saw my bedchamber, and went a 
hunting with hounds, and saw me shoot, and saw all my 
guard shoot together. He dined with me, heard me play 
on the lute, came to me in my study, supped with me, 
and so departed to Richmond." f 

"M. le Marechal came to me, July 23rd," notes 
Edward, " declaring the king his master's well taking my 
readiness to this treaty, and how much his master was 
bent that way. He presented Mons. Boisdaulphin to be 
ambassador here, as my lord marcus, the 19th day, did 
present Mr. Pickering. 26th. M. le Mareschal dined 
with me. After dinner, saw the strength of the English 
archers ; after he had so done, at his departure I gave him 
a diamond from my finger, worth by estimation £150, 
both for [his] pains and also for my memory. Then he took 
his leave. 27th. He came to me a hunting to tell me 
the news, and show the letter his master had sent him, 
and doubles (copies) of Mons. Terme's letter and Marillac's 
letters, being ambassador with the emperor. 28th. M. le 
Mareschal came to dinner in Hyde Park, where there was 
a fair house made for him, and he saw the cursing 
[coursing, Edward means] there. "$ 

The fair house in Hyde Park, of which king Edward 
here speaks, and also another in Marybonne Park, now 
the Regent's Park, had both been erected by his especial 
command, against the arrival of mareschal St. Andre and 

* King Edward's Journal. f Ibid. J Ibid. 



344 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

his company, at an expense of £169 7s. 8d., of timber, 
brick, and lime ; painted, decorated, and garnished with 
boughs and flowers. 

The carpenters and bricklayers were paid a penny an 
hour for their work, the labourers a half-penny an hour, 
the plaisterers eleven pence a day ; but the painters 
received the extraordinary wages of seven and sixpence per 
day. The windows were of basket work. The banqueting 
house in Hyde Park was 57 feet in length and 60 in 
breadth, supported with six turned pillars and surmounted 
with an ornamented turret. There were additional 
charges for cutting boughs in the wood in Hyde Park for 
trimming the banqueting house, and gathering rushes, 
flags, and ivy. Besides these banqueting houses, there 
were six stands of timber, garnished with flags and 
flowers, for beholding the sports.* 

Meantime, king Edward's ambassadors extraordinary to 
the court of France, having invested king Henry II. with 
the order of the garter, opened the matrimonial negotia- 
tions in behalf of the young royal bachelor their master, 
by demanding that " the queen of Scotland should be sent 
to England for the consummation of her marriage with 
king Edward," offering at the same time to produce the 
documentary proofs of the contract and treaty, in virtue 
of which he claimed her for his wife.f 

The king of France referred the decision of this delicate 
affair to commissioners. The following conversation then 
took place between them and the English ambassador in 
reply to this demand of the queen of Scots : £ 

" By my troth," quoth the constable, "to be plain and 
frank with you, seeing you require us so to be, the matter 
hath cost us both much riches and no little blood ; and so 
much doth the honour of France hang thereupon, as we 

* Kemp's Losely MSS. Northampton and the other ambassa- 

f Letter of the Marquis of Nor- dors for the marriage, from Chateau^ 

thampton. briand. State Paper Office MS., 

J Report of the Marquis of 20th of June, 1551. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 345 

cannot toll how to talk with you therein, the marriage 
being already concluded between her and the dauphin." 
The marquis of Northampton replied, " that although the 
king his master thought the marriage with Scotland 
might best have been brought to pass through the friendly 
offices of the king of France, for besides the promise made 
by her whole realm, he also had spent for her both blood 
and riches, yet as he preferred the amity of his said good 
brother before any other consideration, he had given 
commission, if the other request pleased not, to demand in 
marriage the lady Elizabeth, eldest daughter to the king 
of France, whereunto he was moved first by the good affec- 
tion of his majesty towards him ; and secondly, by the 
good report of the likelihood and towardness of the young 
lady." The overture was most eagerly embraced, with 
many complimentary observations in regard to the noble 
qualities of king Edward, and the puissance of his realm. 

The condensed report of the negotiations is thus 
chronicled by Edward's own pen : * 

" The cardinals of Lorraine and Chastillon, the constable, 
and the duke of Ghiise were appointed commissioners on 
the part of France, who absolutely denied the first motion 
for the Scottish queen, saying, ' both they had taken too 
much pains and spent too many lives for her, also a 
conclusion was made for her marriage to the dolphin.' 
Then was proposed the marriage of the lady Elizabeth, 
the French king's eldest daughter, to which they did most 
cheerfully assent. So after, they agreed neither party to 
be bound in conscience nor honour till she were twelve 
years of age and upwards. Then they came to the dote 
which was first asked, 1,500,000 scutes (crowns) of France, 
at which they made a mock.f After for donatia propter 

* King Edward's Journal. the persuading them to think this 

sum reasonable." Letter of Marquis 

f Ml Frankly demanded!' quoth of Northampton and the other am- 
they, laughing. ¥e alleged such rea- bassadors to the lords of the council, 
sons as we thought might serve for State Paper Office MS. 



346 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

nuptias, they agreed that it should be as great as hath 
been given by the king my father to any wife he had." 

It is impossible to forbear from smiling at the quaint 
manner in which the young royal bachelor, who was 
so painfully aware of the insolvent state of his exchequer, 
and perhaps reckoned on the large portion he hoped to 
receive with his bride as part of the ways and means of 
paying off some of his debt to the Flemish bankers, details 
the progressive deductions made by his matrimonial 
commissioners in their demands of the dowry of Elizabeth 
of France. " Our commissioners came to 1,400,000 of 
crowns, which they, the French commissioners refused ; 
then to a million, which they denied ; then to 800,000 
crowns, which they said they would not agree to." The 
result of the third day's negotiation was even more morti- 
fying ; as indicative of the fact that our sixth Edward, 
with all his beauty, learning, wisdom, and virtue, con- 
tinued at discount in the matrimonial market, for on his 
procurators, ashamed of continuing to abate from their 
demands, asking the French commissioners in plain words 
what they would give with their princess. "First," re- 
cords his majesty, "they offered 100,000 crowns, then 
200,000, which they said was the most and more than 
was ever given. Then followed great reasonings and 
showings of precedents."* As this sum, about £50,000, 
was the utmost that could be obtained, king Edward 
condescended to signify that he would accept it, provided 
the young princess, who was only six years old, should be 
transported to England three months before she completed 
her twelfth year, at the expense of the king, her father, 
with a suitable wardrobe, or, to use the homely expression 
of the royal bridegroom-elect, "sufficiently stuffed- and 
jewelled. "f There was an attempt at the same time to 
dispose of Edward's sister, the princess Mary, in a mar- 
riage with the brother of the king of France, but it came 
to nothing. 

* King Edward's Journal. f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 347 

A picture of the princess Elizabeth of France had been 
procured by the earl of Warwick, for his young royal 
master, to show mareschal St. Andre at his house, 
in token of the tender affection he had conceived for his 
intended consort. The petite madame Elizabeth was a 
beautiful, precocious child, receiving a learned education 
with her royal sister-in-law the queen of Scots, who about 
this time began writing to her almost every day a 
letter in French and Latin, full of sage advice.* This was 
probably intended to perfect Mary in her Latin, and to 
initiate Elizabeth into a course of study that would 
qualify her to become a suitable consort to so accomplished 
a prince as the young king of England. 

Barbaro, the Venetian ambassador's simple, unvar- 
nished report of Edward's characteristics, is perhaps more 
deserving of quotation then the laudations of the Zurich 
professors of divinity, whose gratitude for the patronage 
and presents of the learned young sovereign made them 
represent him as a sinless piece of perfection, adorned 
with graces incompatible with the fallibilities of frail 
humanity. " He is," writes the noble Yenetian, " of good 
disposition, and fills the country with the best expectations, 
because he is handsome, graceful, of proper size, shows an 
inclination to generosity, and begins to wish to understand 
what is going on. In the exercise of the mind and the 
study of languages, he appears to excel his companions. 
He is fourteen years of age."f 

Edward removed to the castle of Farnham, the episcopal 
palace of the bishop of Winchester, on the 10th of Sep- 
tember, of which he had taken possession, and remained 
there till the 18th, when he proceeded to Windsor, and 
from- thence to Hampton Court on the 27th. While 
there, he kept the festival of the royal French order of 
St. Michael, on Michaelmas day, and dined in the robes 

* See Life of Mary Stuart, in Agnes Stuickland, vol. iii., 3rd 
" Lives of Queens of Scotland," by edition. 

f MS. at Greystoke Castle. 



348 EDWAKD THE SIXTH. 

of the order, having invited the French ambassador to 
dine with him, whom he entertained, we are told, "to his 
great contentation,"* no doubt, if he regaled him with 
the orthodox English fare of roast goose and apple sauce, 
for the commemoration of the festival of St. Michael and 
all Angels. 

The next incident of interest that occurred during 
Edward's sojourn at Hampton Court, was the arrival of 
M. de Jarnac, a French nobleman of high rank, who was 
commissioned by the king of France to announce " that the 
queen, Catherine de Medicis, had been happily delivered of 
a third son, the duke d'Angoulesme, of whom the king 
prayed his royal brother of England to be godfather." 
Edward graciously accepted the office, and deputed the 
new lord admiral of England, Henry lord Clinton, to act as 
his representative at the christening of the infant French 
prince, also to bear his commendations to his affianced 
lady Madame Elizabeth of France, and the present of a 
fair diamond ring as a token of his love. Edward sent 
his young favourite Barnaby Fitz-Patrick as an attache 
with Clinton on his mission. Clinton was attacked with 
so severe an intermittent fever on his arrival at Fontain- 
bleau that he was unable to perform the long journey to 
Blois, where the little princess was residing, to deliver the 
commendations and token from the young bachelor king 
his master, and wrote in great perplexity to require in- 
structions from the council as to what were best to be 
done, to which the following reply was given.f "And for 
that your lordship moves us to know our opinions whether 
it were best for yourself to go with the king's majesty's 
token to the lady Elizabeth, who is at Blois, distant from 
Fontainbleau the space of sixty miles ; we think if your 
lordship's estate for your sickness might commodiously 
suffer you to do so, the same were very necessary, consider- 
ing what she is now to the king's majesty, our master, and 

* King Edward's Journal. 

f Letter of the council to Sir William Pickering, Sept. 29th, 1551, State 
Paper Office MS. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 349 

what soever your lordship shall do to her grace, the same 
shall redound to his majesty's good contentation." 

According to king Edward's journal, "the lord admiral 
(Clinton) christened the French king's child, Dec. 5th, 
and called him by the king's commandment Edward 
Alexander."* The christening gifts presented by our 
young protestant king to his popish godson, were a pair of 
pots of gold, fair wrought and enamelled, weighing 145 
ounces ; a pair of flagons of gold, wrought according to 
the same pots, 145 ounces ; also a bowl of gold, wrought 
with devices of astronomy and phismanys (?), weighing 
18 ounces ; value one thousand three hundred and sixteen 
pounds five shillings. f Two hundred, four score, and 
twelve French crowns were distributed by the noble 
proxy, in rewards to the governor, nurse, and other 
ministers about the French king's youngest son.f 

" All that day," continues the young royal chronicler, 
in his journal, "there was music, dancing, and triumph in 
the court ; but the lord admiral was sick of a double 
quartan. Yet he presented Barnabe % to the French king, 
who took him to his chamber." 

" Sir William Pickering," notes the young royal 
bachelor, "delivered to the lady Elizabeth a fair diamond."§ 
No particulars, either of the ceremony of the presenta- 
tion, or of the manner of the reception of this offering, 
are recorded; it was probably intended for a ring of 
betrothal, as the treaty had been ratified by the contract- 
ing parties. Pickering, when he returned to the court 
of France, from the performance of this mission, being 
kindly reproached by Henry II. for having made 
himself so long a stranger, gaily replied, " I crave your 
majesty's pardon, but it has been caused by my long 

* This prince, who after the death other than Henry III. of indifferent 

of his young royal English god- memory, 
father, took the name of Henry at f State Paper Office MS. 

his confirmation, succeeded on the J Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, Edward' s 

death of his two elder brothers to favourite. 
the throne of France, being no § King Edward's Journal. 



350 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

abode at Blois, for the doing my duty to the queen, my 
mistress." 

The king of France spoke to the ambassador with 
unfeigned admiration of a portrait of Edward, which 
M. de Jarnac had brought with him from England, 
observing " that it was very excellent, and yet he was 
persuaded that the natural much exceeded the artificial." 
It was only of the beautiful external that the French 
sovereign spoke, but Roger Ascham, one who knew him 
well, has given the following high testimonial of his 
mental endowments : " Our most illustrious king, Edward, 
alike in ability, industry, perseverance, and acquirements, 
far exceeds what is usually expected from his years. It 
is from no fond reports, but from my own frequent obser- 
vation, which I regard as the sweetest incident of my 
life, that I have contemplated the whole band of virtues 
taking up their residence in his breast." 

Edward was now addressed by the king of France 
as " our very dear and well-beloved good brother and 
son;" and Edward, in like manner, acknowledged the 
family alliance in perspective, by styling Henry " our 
very dear and well-beloved good father, brother, and 
cousin." 

The earl of Warwick had been two years at the head 
of the government of the realm, and during that period 
had exercised his power so adroitly as to obtain un- 
bounded influence over the mind of the youthful sove- 
reign. This was increased by the marriage of his daughter 
with Henry Sidney, one of the earliest and dearest of 
Edward's companions, and the introduction of his son, 
lord Robert Dudley, into the royal household. The deaths 
of the two young dukes of Suffolk enabled him to con- 
ciliate their sister, the lady Frances, and the marquis 
of Dorset her husband, by persuading the king to bestow 
that title on the marquis. He obtained, at the same 
time, his own elevation to the dukedom of Northum- 
berland, and gratified his adherents by causing the earl 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 351 

of Wiltshire to be created marquis of Winchester, and 
sir William Herbert earl of Pembroke, and inducing 
the king to knight Henry Sidney and Cecil, and his 
schoolmaster, Dr. Cheke. Cecil, having forsaken Somer- 
set in his adversity, was now secretary of state. 
Somerset, who had been dispossessed of his authority as 
the chief person of the realm, imprisoned, degraded, 
stripped of two-thirds of his wealth, by Warwick's suc- 
cessful intrigues, and reduced to a comparative cipher 
in the court, assisted at these creations,* and dined with 
the new dukes and marquis ; but it must have been with 
a swelling heart and painfully suppressed feelings of 
mortification. He had reason to suspect further evil 
was intended against him, notwithstanding the family 
alliance into which he had recently entered with his rival 
by the marriage between their children. He wrote to 
his former confidential servant, Cecil, now the principal 
adviser of Northumberland, to request his advice. Cecil 
coolly replied : " If you are innocent, you have no cause 
for apprehension ; if you are guilty, I can only lament 
your case."f 

Somerset, yielding to indignation, wrote a contemptuous 
letter of defiance to the ungrateful politician, which pro- 
bably precipitated his own fate. He was arrested on the 
16th of October, and committed to the Tower, as he had 
been just two years before, but on much more serious 
charges. These, together with the manner in which they 
were made known, are thus detailed by the pen of his 
royal nephew, eight days before the arrest took place : 

" [October] 7th. Sir Thomas Palmer came to the earl 
of Warwick, since that time duke of Northumberland, to 
deliver him his chain, being a very fair one, for every link 

* The creation of the two dukes, and through the great chamber, into 
etc., took place at nine o'clock on the chamber of presence, where the 
the Sunday morning, when they were king stood under his cloth of estate, 
brought through the gallery, which surrounded with his nobles.— Council 
was strewn with fresh green rushes. Book. 

t King Edward's Journal. 



352 EDWARD THE SIXTH- 

weighed an ounce, to be delivered to Jarnac* Where- 
upon in my lord's garden he declared a conspiracy. 
How, at St. George's day last, my lord of Somerset (who 
was then going to the north, if the master of the horse, 
sir William Herbert, had not assured him on his honour 
he should have no hurt), went to raise the people, and 
the lord Gray to know who were his friends. After- 
ward a device was made to call the earl of Warwick 
to a banquet, with the marquis of Northampton and 
divers others, and to cut off their heads. Also, if he 
found a bare company about them by the way, to set 
upon them. He declared also, that Mr. Vane had 2,000 
men in readiness. Sir Thomas Arundel had assured my 
lord that the Tower was safe ; Mr. Partridge should raise 
London and take the great seal, with the 'prentices of 
London, Seymour and Hammond should wait upon him, 
and all the horse of the gendarmerie should be slain." 
The childish manner in which these high and horrible 
designs whereof his uncle was accused, are recited, 
plainly verifies the originality of the authorship of the 
passage, and indicates that the young king was in too 
great a state of excitement to attend either to his 
grammar, or the probabilities of the story, in jotting 
down what had been declared to him. 

Edward's next entry in his journal is for the 15th. 
" Eemoving to Westminster, because it was thought this 
matter might easlier and surelier be despatched there, and 
likewise all other." He enters into the circumstances, 
treacherous enough, under which the persons of all the 
parties accused of implication in this wild and improbable 
plot, were secured on the 16th. " This morning none was 
at Westminster of the conspirators. The first was the 
duke, who came later than he was wont of himself. 
After dinner he was apprehended. Sir Thomas Paulmer, 
on the terrace, walking there. Hammond passing by 

* The noble French, envoy who had brought the invitation for the king to 
be godfather to the new-born prince of France. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 353 

Mr. Vice Chamberlain's door, was called in by John Piers 
to make a match at shooting, and so taken. Nidegates 
(Francis Newdigate), steward of the duke of Somerset's 
household, was called for as from my lord his master, 
and taken. Likewise were John Seymour and Davy 
Seymour, Arundel, and the lord Gray coming out of 
the country. Yane, upon two sendings of my lord in 
the morning, fled at the first sending ; he said, ' My lord 
was not stout, and if he could get home, he cared for none 
of them all, he was so strong.' But after he was found 
by John Piers in a stable of his man's at Lambeth under 
the straw. These went with the duke to the Tower this 
night, saving Palmer, Arundel, and Vane, who were kept 
in chambers here apart."* The next day Edward records 
the arrest of the duchess of Somerset with her attendants, 
Crane and his wife, who were all sent to the Tower, 
under the accusation of devising these treasons ; but he 
does not mention, and it is to be hoped he was ignorant 
of it, the insulting treatment to which she and the young 
ladies, his cousins, were subjected, both from sir John 
Gates, the vice chamberlain, and Somerset's false servants, 
in their scramble to get possession of the plate and jewels, 
by breaking into lady Jane Seymour's chamber at five 
o'clock in the morning, and tearing from her, and her sister 
lady Margaret, eight gold spoons, a piece of unicorn's 
horn, and several gold bracelets and other valuables, the 
personal property of the poor young ladies, which for 
security they had hastily pocketed, together with a fair 
diamond, which lady Margaret Seymour, who was engaged 
to become the wife of the king's young friend and com- 
panion, lord Strange, declared she had purchased of Mr. 
Dudley, and even named the price, when called to account 
by an official examination for her attempt to secrete it.f 

Every drop of Seymour blood in Edward Tudor's 
veins would surely have boiled with indignation against 
Northumberland and his myrmidons if this story had 

* King Edward's Journal. f Additional MSS., 5486, f. 25. 

23 



354 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

ever reached his ears, as it well might have done, had 
lord Strange acted with the courage and fidelity of a 
man of honour in regard to his betrothed and her family. 
This young nobleman, however, who was in the country 
with his father, the earl of Derby, when the second 
storm- broke over Somerset, on being summoned by the 
council to give his attendance on the king, perceiving how 
matters were going, not only broke his plight with lady 
Margaret, but basely did his utmost to aggravate the 
mind of the boy-king against the unfortunate duke. 
"The lord Strange/' records Edward, " confessed how 
the duke willed him to sturre me to marry his third 
daughter, the lady Jane, and willed him to be his spie in 
all matters of my doings and sayings, and to know when 
some of my council spake secretly with me. This he 
confessed of himself."* 

These statements were probably true, but they came 
with a peculiarly ill grace from one who, having been 
treated with the familiar confidence of a son, had been 
trusted without reserve by the unfortunate duke. Sub- 
sequently, lord Strange came forward to depose the same 
against Somerset at his trial in Westminster Hall, and 
apparently with very prejudicial effect, for the marquis 
of Winchester, who presided on the occasion as lord 
steward, observes : " Indeed it is true that the said lord 
Strange had done so, and that since the last treaty 
for marriage with the French king, although altogether 
in vain ; and yet thereby the said duke hath showed him- 
self not only presumptuous but also of little consideration 
for the king's honour and good meaning towards the 
weal of the realm."f Somerset's trial took not place till 
the first of December, and in the meantime the advent of 
the queen-mother of Scotland and her ladies occurred, 
involving so many duties of royal hospitality on the 
part of the young bachelor sovereign, as appears to 

* King Edward's Journal, 
t Letter of the marquis of Winchester to lord Clinton. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 355 

have rendered him forgetful of the perilous predicament 
in which his unfortunate uncle stood as a woful prisoner 
in the Tower, with an indictment in preparation against 
him that was intended to bring him to the block. 

Circumstances of a romantic nature were connected 
with the visit of the queen -mother of Scotland. The 
emperor Charles V. out of hostility to the king of France, 
at whose court she had been sojourning with her royal 
daughter, had very ungallantly sent out ships to inter- 
cept and capture her on her homeward voyage,* while 
Edward, to whom she had applied for a safe conduct and 
permission to land in England if necessary, had both 
complied with her request and promised her his protection, 
in the tone of apreux chevalier. f Her fears of falling into 
the hands of the hostile squadron caused her, nevertheless, 
to remain so long at Dieppe, that, her presence being 
much required in her daughter's realm, she intended to 
pursue her voyage to Scotland direct, when she succeeded 
in slippin'g out of port, but encountering foul weather at 
sea, she found herself under the necessity, on the 22nd 
of October, of availing herself of king Edward's invita- 
tion. " The dowager of Scotland," writes he, " on that 
day, was, by tempest driven to land at Portsmouth ; and 
so she sent me word that she would take the benefit of 
the safe conduct to go by land and to see me/'J 

King Edward's considerate arrangements for the pro- 
gress of his royal guest from Portsmouth to Hampton 
Court, and her stately reception and entertainment 
there in his absence, have already been related in our 
biography of that queen. § He appointed her lodgings 
in his metropolis, in the episcopal palace of the first 
protestant bishop of London, Dr. Ridley, perhaps in the 

* September 3rd, 1551. " Further- ambassador that * the dowager should 

more he sent a dozen ships, which in all my parts be defended from 

bragged they would take the dow- enemies and tempest.' " Ibid, 

ager of Scotland, which thiDg staid + Ibid. 

her so long at Dieppe." King § Life of Mary of Lorraine, 

Edward's Journal. " Lives of Queens of Scotland," by 

f " It was answered to the French Agnes Strickland, vol. ii. 



356 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

hope of her deriving spiritual benefit from the conversa- 
tion of that enlightened prelate. The duke of Northum- 
berland and a distinguished party met and conducted 
her and her train to the bishop's palace in St. Paul's ; 
and there, by the king's command, all the great ladies of 
his court, headed by his cousin Margaret, countess of 
Lennox, and Frances, duchess of Suffolk, and lady Jane 
Gray, were waiting with divers of the city ladies, the 
duke of Suffolk, and others of the nobility, to receive and 
salute her majesty. The next day Edward sent a deputa- 
tion to bid her welcome, to inquire whether she lacked 
anything, and to invite her to visit him on the morrow.* 
It is an indubitable proof of the estrangement between 
Edward and his sisters, that neither Mary nor Elizabeth, 
whose places would naturally have been by his side, were 
present at the splendid court he held at Whitehall, on 
the 4th of November, for the reception of his royal guest. 
On that day the king sent the duke of Suffolk, lord Braye, 
and divers other lords and gentlemen, with his cousins, 
Margaret, countess of Lennox, Frances, duchess of Suffolk, 
lady Jane Gray, the duchesses of Richmond and Northum- 
berland, and 100 other ladies of the highest rank, to attend 
the queen-mother of Scotland on her state progress 
through London to Westminster, and bring her to his 
presence. All the pensioners, guards, and officers of the 
household were standing on either side when she entered 
the court, and at the gates the duke of Northumberland ' 
and the earl of Pembroke were waiting to receive and 
introduce her into the hall, at the upper end of which 
stood the youthful sovereign and his council. He greeted 
her with winning grace, kissed, embraced and welcomed 
her ; then, taking her by the hand, he led her into his 
chamber of presence, and from thence into the queen's 
presence chamber, where her ladies were presented to him, 
and he kissed them all."f Our young bachelor king does 

* See Life of Mary of Lorraine, Agnes Strickland, vol. ii, p. 153 — 
"Lives of Queens of Scotland," by 159. 

f Stow, Strype, Anderson's MS., History of Scotland. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 357 

not chronicle this portion of the ceremonial in his record 
of the proceedings of that important day, the only one on 
which he was so fortunate as to. receive a queen within 
his palace, and exercise so agreeable a privilege as saluting 
her and all her ladies. His account of the visit must not, 
however, be omitted. " At the gate there received her the 
duke of Northumberland, great master and comptroller, 
and the earl of Pembroke, with all the sewars, and 
carvers, and cup bearers, to the number of thirty. In the 
hall I met her, with the rest of the lords of my council, 
as the lord treasurer, the marquis of Northampton, etc., 
and from the outer gate up to the presence chamber on 
both sides stood the guard. The court, the hall, and the 
stairs, were full of serving men ; the presence chamber, 
the great chamber and her presence chamber of gentle- 
men ; and so having brought her to her chamber, I re- 
tired to mine She dined under the same cloth of estate 
at my left hand. At her rereward dined my cousin 
Fraunces and my cousin Margret. At mine sat the 
French ambassador. We were served with two services, 
two sewars, cup-bearers, carvers, and gentlemen. Her 
maistre cV hotel came before her services, and mine officers 
before mine. There were two cupboards, one of gold, 
four stages high ; another of massy silver, six stages. In 
her great chamber dined at three boards the ladies only. 
After dinner, when she had heard some music, I brought 
her to the hall, and she went away."* But not till he had 
led her through his galleries and shewn her his gardens, f 
the beautiful gardens which originally graced the palace 
of Whitehall, descending in terraces down to the river 
Thames. Of these, however, all vestiges have passed 
away, the names of Privy Gardens and Whitehall Place 
alone preserving a shadowy memory of the locality of 
that great and glorious palace of cardinal Wolsey and 
our Tudor and Stuart sovereigns. 

It must have been during this tete-a-tete promenade of 

* King Edward's Journal. f Stow's Chronicle. 



358 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Edward VI. with Mary of Lorraine, that the youthful 
monarch, who had probably been somewhat inspirited 
by the wines of Burgundy or Bordeaux with which he 
had pledged his royal guest and the French ambassador 
at the banquet, made a bold attempt, in defiance of 
the matrimonial treaty he had just contracted with the 
eldest daughter of France, to persuade her majesty to 
bestow the young queen of Scotland, her daughter, upon 
him in marriage, for the peaceful union of their realms ; 
an alliance which appeared as if designed by heaven 
itself to prevent further effusion of Christian blood. 

This interesting conversation was introduced by Edward 
asking the queen-mother of Scotland "how she liked 
England ?" "I like it passing well," she replied ; "but 
of all I have seen therein, I am best pleased with its 
king." "Yet ye would not have me to be your son/' 
rejoined Edward, reproachfully. The queen-mother cour- 
teously observed, "that if the question had not been 
moved till she had seen him, the result might haply 
have been different ; but the marriage had been sought in 
such uncivil fashion as highly to com move the people of 
Scotland against it, for the barbarities committed by the 
duke of Somerset, and others of the English commanders, 
in devastating her realm with fire and sword, had not 
only made the idea of English rule hateful to Scottish 
men, but had compelled her to seek aid from France, 
and had also enforced them to send their young queen 
there for refuge. Such fashion of wooing," she repeated, 
was not the way to win a lady and a sovereign princess 
in marriage, who should rather be sought by humane and 
gentle courtship than by rigorous, cruel, and extreme 
pursuit."* Nor did the royal widow forget to add, " that 
if they had commenced by seeking her good will, who 
was the mother of the infant queen, instead of dealing 
underhand with her false traitors, and using such un- 
friendly compulsory measures to obtain her, she might 
* Lesley's History of Scotland, and Scotch Historical Traditions. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 359 

have shown herself more favourable in the matter ; but 
now, unfortunately, matters had proceeded so far, in the 
purpose of the queen of Scotland's marriage with the 
dauphin, that the engagement between them could not 
be broken." Edward, in the determinative spirit of 
a royal Tudor, continued to urge the matter, in the 
vain hope of prevailing, by personal importunity, on 
the mother of Mary Stuart to relinquish the French 
marriage for her daughter in his favour, maintaining 
"that his was the prior right, in virtue of the solemn 
treaty whereby he claimed her for his wife," adding, in 
a sterner tone, " I assure you that whosoever marrieth 
her shall not have her with kindness from me, but I 
shall be enemy to him in all times coming."* 

The queen dowager, seeing the fair young English 
sovereign thus " commoved, was fain to pacify him by 
promising to use her influence with the king of France 
and her kindred, to bring, if it were possible, his desire 
to pass." Probably she regretted, now it was too late, 
that the marriage between Edward and the queen, 
her daughter, could not take place ; for so high an 
estimate did she form of his character, that she frankly 
declared to her own nobles " that she found more wisdom 
and solid judgment in the young king of England than 
she would have looked for in any three princes of full age 
that were then in Europe."f 

Elng Edward kissed his royal guest at parting, when 
he had led her by the hand to the foot of the stairs 
into the entrance hall, and so took his leave, with all 
princely demonstrations of courtesy and good will. J The 
next day he sent her, by the duke of Northumberland 
and a deputation of his nobles, two valuable diamond 
rings, as tokens of his regard, § and a present of two nags, 

* Lesley's History of Scotland. sent by Edward to his affianced con~ 

f Knox's History of the Eefor- sort, Elizabeth of France, were once 

mation in Scotland. the property of his royal step-mother, 

X Stow's Chronicle. queen Katharine Parr, having been 

§ These rings,like the one previously seized among the rest of her jewels 



360 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

or palfreys, richly caparisoned, for her own use on the 
journey. The nags were delivered to her by the earl of 
Pembroke, master of the horse, who had previously 
received from the king's wardrobe stores, by the royal 
warrant, " fifteen yards of russet cloth of gold, for making 
the trappings and headstalls of the two horses given by 
the king to the Scottish queen, and fifteen yards and a 
half of yellow Bruges satin, to line the same."* 

The departure of his royal guest from his metropolis 
on the 6th of November, is duly chronicled by the young 
king in his journal, with an account of the great ladies 
and nobles by whom she was escorted through the city 
to Shoreditch.f 

The storm that blew Mary of Lorraine on the English 
shore, just at the critical juncture when the fate of the duke 
of Somerset hung, as it were, suspended on a balance, 
may be regarded as one of those mysterious causes which 
turned the scale against him. It has generally been 
considered that the festivities of which her arrival was 
the signal, the arrangements made for her comfort, and, 
above all, the unwonted excitement of receiving and 
entertaining, for the first time, a queen and all her fair 
ladies, so occupied the attention of our young royal 

and costly plenishings, at Sudeley at Sudeley, in the countie of Glouces- 

Castle, on the attainder of her luck- tre, were nyne rynges of gold, sett 

less widower, the lord admiral. These with nyne diamountes, of divers sizes, 

of right pertained to her orphan whereof vii are table diamountes and 

daughter and representative, the lady two are lozenged (side note). One 

Mary Seymour; but in consequence of these ix rynges, sett with a Ion 

of the disgraceful act of parliament, diamounte, cutt full of squares, and 

procured through the lord protector's one other of the same rynges, sett 

influence, for disinheriting his infant with a fayer table diamounte, was 

niece, they had fallen, with her other given by the king to the Skotish 

spoils, into his rapacious hands, and quene at her being here, as appereth 

when the hour of retribution arrived, by his highness' warrant." — Inven- 

had been in turn torn from his wife tory. MSS., Society of Antiquarians 

and daughters, and brought into Cat., cxxix. 

the royal jewel house, " Among the * Note in Literary Remains of 

quene's juels and other stuffe which King Edward VI., by J. G. Nichols, 
came from the late admyralle's house f King Edward's Journal. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 361 

bachelor, as to divert his mind entirely from the 
case of .his unfortunate uncle. But there was more in it 
than this : Edward as we have seen, had so fixed his 
heart and soul on the union of England and Scotland, by 
a marriage with the fair young sovereign of Scotland, 
that, could he have prevailed on the queen her mother to 
bestow her on him, he would cheerfully have paid the 
forfeit of the 100,000 crowns to which he would, by 
breaking his matrimonial treaty with France, have ren- 
dered himself liable ; but the royal widow had availed 
herself of their confidential conference to explain to him 
the painful fact, that this eagerly- coveted bride had been 
lost to him in consequence of the atrocities perpetrated 
in his name on her subjects by his uncle. The details of 
these doings, which had never reached his ears before, 
when disclosed by the lips of the mother of Mary 
Stuart, with the passionate eloquence of an eye-witness, 
suffering from the reckless barbarity whereof Somerset 
had been guilty, were, indeed, only too well calculated 
to render him an object of horror and detestation to his 
young royal nephew. The duke of Northumberland, 
who had been, when earl of Warwick, Somerset's second 
in command in Scotland, was well able to corroborate the 
assertions of Mary of Lorraine, and to furnish even docu- 
mentary evidence of his rival's remorseless cruelty during 
their last murderous campaign in that desolated realm, 
till Edward was probably taught to regard his uncle as a 
monster, capable of any villany, deserving of a thousand 
deaths, one whom it would be a crime on his part to 
shield from punishment. 

Although Somerset always enjoyed great popularity 
with the lower classes, from whom he had received the 
flattering appellation of " the good duke," there were 
those, especially among the aristocracy, with whom the 
death of his brother weighed heavily against him ; and 
now, in the time of his adversity, a cry which had 
previously been suppressed by the terror of his despotic 



362 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 






power, was revived against him, " calling him a blood- 
sucker, a murderer, and a fratricide, declaring withal, that 
it was not meet for the king to remain under the care of 
such a ravenous wolf."* Observations that were doubt- 
less brought to the ear of the young sovereign by the 
Dudley party, with assurances that the lord admiral was 
innocent of the charges for which he was brought to the 
block; for it suited well the policy of Northumberland 
to persuade Edward, over whom he, at that time, 
possessed unbounded influence, that his majesty had 
been deceived by calumnious stories invented by Somer- 
set, foi* the purpose of poisoning his mind against the 
unfortunate lord admiral. If previously to that illegal 
deed, to which himself had, in his childish inexperience, 
been rendered instrumental, the royal boy declared, " it 
were better that Somerset should die," it is not likely 
that his feelings towards him had become of a more 
affectionate character after the consummation of that 
revolting tragedy. Notwithstanding all that bishop 
Latimer had said in his sermons, the spring in which 
the lord admiral had suffered, to persuade both king 
and people of the expediency of his execution, the cir- 
cumstance had produced a most unpleasant impression 
against Somerset, even with the ultra-protestant party ; 
so much so, that when he was arrested, and sent to 
the Tower for the second time, a " certain godly and 
honourable lady of this country, with whom I am ac- 
quainted," writes Burgoyne to Calvin, " is said to have 
exclaimed upon that occasion, ' Where is thy brother ? 
lo, his blood crieth against thee unto God from the 
ground ! ' " Somerset was brought to an open trial 
before his peers in Westminster Hall on the 1st of 
December, being indicted on the pretended confession 
of sir Thomas Palmer, who acted in this instance as the 
base tool of the Dudley faction. He vainly demanded, 
when the depositions against him were read, to be con- 
* Hayward's "Life of Edward VI." 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 363 

fronted with the witnesses, and when that justice was 
denied him, he objected to Palmer's evidence being 
received, on account of the badness of his character ; but 
to this objection the court replied, "that the worse 
Palmer was, the better he was suited to his purpose." 

Edward has written a brief account of the trial in his 
journal of the proceedings of that day, and also in a 
letter to his absent friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick. Both 
are couched in terms which prove that he was fully per- 
suaded of his uncle's guilt, and felt neither love, rever- 
ence, nor sympathy for him in his distress. His letter to 
his absent friend is, perhaps, most worthy of attention. 
It commences in the style royal : — 

U To OUR WELL BELOVED SERVANT, BaRNABY FlTZ-PATRICKE, ONE OE 

the Gentlemen of our Chamber, 
" Edward, 
" Little hath been done since you went, but the duke of Somerset's 
arraignment for felonious treason, and the musters of the new-erected 
gendarmery. The duke, the hrst of this month, was brought to 
Westminster Hall, where sat as judge, or high steward, my lord 
treasurer ; 26 lords of the parliament were on his trial. Indict- 
ments were read, which were several, some for treason, some for 
traitorous felony. The lawyers read how Sir Thomas Palmer had 
confessed ' that the duke once minded, and made him privy, to raise 
the North, and after to call the duke of Northumberland, the mar- 
quis of Northampton, and the earl of Pembroke to a feast, and so to 
have slain them.' And to do this thing, as it was thought, had levied 
men 100 at his house at London, which was scanned to be treason, 
because unlawful assemblies for such purposes was treason, by an 
act made last sessions. Also how the duke of Somerset minded to 
stay the horses of the gendarmery, and to raise London. Crane con- 
fessed also the murdering of the lords in a banquet. Sir Miles 
Partridge confessed the raising of London. Hamman, his man, having 
a watch at Greenwich, of 20 weaponed men to resist, if he had 
been arrested, and this confessed both Partridge and Palmer. He 
answered ' that when he levied men at his house, he meant no such 
thing, but only to defend himself.' The rest very barely answered. 
After debating the matter from 9 of the clock till three, the 
lords went together, and there weighing ' that the matter seemed 
only to touch their lives, although afterward more inconvenience 
might have followed, and that men might think they did it of 



364 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



malice,' acquitted him of high treason, and condemned him of 
felony, which he seemed to have confessed. He, hearing the judg- 
ment, fell down on his knees, and thanked them for his open trial. 
After he asked pardon of the duke of Northumberland, the 
marquis, etc., etc., whom he confessed he meant to destroy, although 
before he swore vehemently to the contrary. The next day after he 
confessed how he had promised Bertiville* to deliver him out of 
prison, if he would kill the duke of Northumberland." 

. This letter, is dated Westminster, December 20th, 
1551.f 

Edward had, on the departure of Barnaby to France 
as an attache to the embassy of Lord Clinton, taken the 
trouble of drawing up a very curious code of private 
instructions and advice for the personal use of his friend, 
some portions of which are amusing, considering the fact 
that the young Milesian was several years older than 
his royal monitor. He directs Barnaby "to enter the 
French king's service and accompany him on his cam- 
paigns, by which means opportunities would be obtained 
of learning the French art of war, and information of all 
passing events ; " and the young volunteer is advised to 
get all he can in the way of pay or pension in reward of 
his services from the French sovereign. "At his setting 
forth," continues king Edward, "he shall carry with him 
four servants, and if the wages amount to any great sum 
more than I give him, that the French king giveth him to 
live there, after that proportion, to advertise me of the 
same." The sum of fifty pounds had been disbursed by 
his majesty's orders to Barnaby, to supply funds for his 
personal expenses, and this he was in some measure' to 
earn by becoming a private reporter of the manners, 
customs, and news of the French court. " Also, this 
winter," pursues Edward, "he shall study the tongue and 
see the manner of the court, and advertise me of the 

* Bertiville was a renegade f Literary Kemains of King Ed- 
French officer, in the band of for- ward VI, by J. G-. Nichols. Prin- 
eign mercenaries, who had served ted by the Roxburgh Club. Printed 
under Somerset, in the Scotch cam- also by Horace Walpole, and in 
paign. Fuller's Church History. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 365 

occurrences he shall hear ; and if he bo desirous to see 
any place notable, or town, he may go thither, asking 
leave of the king, and shall behave himself honestly, 
more following the company of gentlemen than pressing 
into the company of ladies there, and his chief pastime 
shall be hunting and riding." 

Another letter of the same date as that relating the 
trial and condemnation of the duke of Somerset, was 
addressed by the young king to Barnaby, which, though 
written like the other in the style royal, is of a personal 
and more familiar character, and intended, as appears by 
a note from Cecil which accompanies it, to be used as a 
sort of credential at the French court, if necessary. It is 
too characteristic of the royal writer to be omitted here : — 

" Edward. 
" We have received your letters of the eighth of this present 
month, whereby we understand how you are well entertained, for 
which we are right glad, and also how you have been once to go on 
pilgrimage ; for which cause we have thought good to advertise you 
that hereafter, if any such chance happen, you shall desire leave to 
go to Mr. Pickering or to Paris for your business, and if that will not 
serve, to declare to some man of estimation with whom you are best 
acquainted, that as you are loth to offend the French king, because 
you have been so favourably used, so with safe conscience you cannot 
do any such thing, being brought up with me and bound to obey my 
laws. Also that you had commandment from me to the contrary. 
Yet, if you be vehemently procured, you may go, as waiting on the 
king, not as consenting to the abuse, nor willingly seeing the cere- 
monies, and so you look not on the mass. But, in the meantime, regard 
the Scriptures, or some good book, and give no reverence to the mass 
at all: Furthermore, remember, when you may conveniently be 
absent from the court, to tarry with sir William Pickering, to be 
instructed by him how to use yourself. For women, as far forth as 
you may avoid their company ; yet, if the French king command 
you, you may sometimes dance, so measure be your mean ; else apply 
yourself to riding, shooting, tennis, or such honest games, not forget- 
ting, sometimes, when you have leisure, your learning, chiefly 
reading of the Scriptures. This I write, not doubting you would 
have done though I had not written, but to spur you on. Your 
exchange of 1200 crowns you shall receive, either monthly or quar- 
terly, by Bartholomew Campaigners, factor, in Paris. He hath warrant 



366 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

to receive it here, and hath, written to his factors to deliver it you 
there. "We have signed your bill for wages of the chamber which 
Fitz-Williams hath ; likewise we have sent a letter before hand to 
our deputy, that he shall take surrender of your father's lands, and 
to make again other letters patent, that these lands shall be to him, 
you, and your heirs lawfully begotten, for ever, adjoining thereunto 
two religious houses you spake for. Thus, fare you well. From 
"Westminster, the 20th of December, 1551."* 

To this Mr. secretary Cecil adds a friendly official letter, 
briefly but discreetly commending the king's letter, which 
he very truly terms, " Fatherly of a child, comfortable as 
written by his sovereign lord, and most wisely of so 
young a prince." Further, the minister advises the 
youthful courtier to carry it about with him as a thing 
much to his advantage and honour, " being the letter of 
his sovereign lord, with whom he had been bred up in 
learning and manners, and as a proof of what the prince 
with whom he had been brought up was."f 

The young Milesian's reply to his loving sovereign is 
somewhat more amusing than the boy -king's edifying 
string of precepts : — 

" To the King's Majesty. 

" According to my bounden duty, I most humbly thank your 
highness for your gracious letter of the 20th of December, lamenting 
nothing, but that I am not able by any means nor cannot deserve 
any thing of the goodness your highness hath showed towards me. 
And as for avoiding the company of the ladies, I will assure your 
highness I will not come into their company unless 1 do wait upon 
the French king. As for the letter your majesty hath granted my 
father for the assurance of his lands, I thank your highness, most 
humbly confessing myself as much bound to you as a subject to his 
sovereign for the same. As for such simple news as is here I think 
good to certify to your majesty. It did happen that a certain saint 
standing in a blind corner of the street where my lord admiral lay, 
was broken in the night time when my lord was here ; which, 
the Frenchmen did think to have been done by the Englishmen, and 
the Englishmen did think it to have been done by some Frenchmen 
out of spite, because the Englishmen lay in that street, and now since 
that time they have prepared another saint, which they call " Our 

• Fuller's Worthies, p. 179. f Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 367 

Ladie of Silver," because the French king, that dead is, made her 
once of clear silver, which afterwards was stolen, as she hath been 
divers times both stolen and broken in the same place ; which, ladie 
was at this present Sunday, being- the 27th of this month, set up 
with a solemn procession, in the which procession came first in the 
morning divers priests of divers churches, with crosses and banners, 
and passed by the place where she should stand. Then afterwards, 
about 1 1 of the clock, came the legate of Rome, in whose company 
came first afore him sixty black canons of our lady's church ; then 
came after them one that carried the legate's hat in such sort as they 
carry the great seal in England. Then came the master of Paris 
next to the cardinal, which carried the image that should be set up ; 
then came the legate himself, all in red, with a white surplice, still 
blessing, accompanied with the bishop of Caers ; and after him came 
the four presidents of the town, with all the council of the town ; also 
there went before and came behind divers of the officers of the town 
with tipstaves ; and so they have set her up with great solemnity, and 
defended her with a double grate to the intent she should be no more 
stolen nor broken, and the poor people do still lie in the foul street 
worshipping her. Further, as I am credibly informed, the legate 
that liveth here doth give pardons and bulls daily, and one of the 
king's treasurers standeth by and receiveth the money to the king's 
use. Other news I have none. December 28th. The meanest and 
most obliged of your subjects, " Bak:n t aby Fitz-Pateick." 

Northumberland and tlie triumphant party that had 

effected the fall and procured the condemnation of 

Somerset, effectually prevented any appeal in his favour 

from reaching the royal ear. Care was taken to occupy 

his thoughts and attention with a varied round of amuse- 

... . u»** 

ments, and the Christmas festivities, which were .usually 

brilliant, this year were, we are told by a contemporary 
chronicler, " contrived for the especial purpose of recre- 
ating and refreshing the mind of the young king, who 
seemed to take the trouble of his uncle somewhat 
heavily. "* Of this Edward left no documentary proof, 
at least none that was allowed to survive him ; and it 
must be remembered that all his papers fell into the 
hands of the astute junta by whom Somerset was 
pursued to the block. 

Notwithstanding the alleged apathy of the king, he was 
* Grafton's Chronicle. 



368 EDWAttD THE SIXTH. 






pensive, and " it was considered necessary to have some 
thing done for diverting his mind from taking thought ; and 
to that end one George Ferrers, a gentleman of Lincoln's 
Inn, was appointed to be lord of misrule at Christmas, 
who so carried himself, that he gave great delight to many 
and some to the king, but nothing in proportion to his 
heaviness."* The office of lord of misrule was well known 
in the olden time, and now revived by Northumberland's 
especial desire for the diversion of the young sovereign, 
and also to amuse the people ; for the lord of misrule, in 
full costume, attended by his mimic court, jesters, and 
minstrels, came down the Thames in his barge, gaily decor- 
ated, and so proceeded from Westminster to Greenwich on 
Christmas eve, and landed at the palace stairs.f The king 
had removed to Greenwich on the 23rd of December, to 
keep his Christmas there with open hall, the public being 
admitted to witness his sports and festivities. These were 
of a very quaint and amusing character, to judge from the 
provision demanded by George Ferrers of sir Thomas 
Cawarden, the master of the revels, for carrying out his 
devices. There was to be a masque of bagpipers, with six 
counterfeit apes, covered with grey coney skins, to sit on 
the top of them, like minstrels, as though they did play. 
Six and eight-pence were paid for six great tails of wicker 
being furred for a masque of cats, the actors thereof to be 
covered all over with cats tails, no less than thirty dozen 
cats tails being required for this purpose, and the cats 
were to be martially arrayed with helmets, foiled, silvered 
and garnished, with counterfeit pearls. A masque of 
Greek worthies, and a masque of medyoxes, imaginary 
monsters, being half oxen and half men, with deaths' 
heads bearing torches. There were also charges made for 
" the hire of beards, hairs, and devil's apparel.'' Venus 
and Cupid made their appearance for the first time at the 
court of the fair young bachelor king, and were graciously 
received, and the performers received a handsome reward.^ 

* Baker's Chronicle. f Losely MSS. J Ibid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 369 

Challenges which had been made for tilting and run- 
ning, between four of the young lords of the court and 
eighteen defenders, came off at Greenwich on the 3rd of 
January and the 6th. On the night of the 6th, a play was 
performed, and after that an interlude, called u Riches 
and Youth/' A poetic contest, as to which of the two 
was the most to be desired.* "After some pretty reason- 
ing," notes the young sovereign, "there came in six 
champions on either side. On Youth's side came my lord 
Fitzwater, my lord Ambrose [Dudley, Northumberland's 
son], sir Anthony Brown, Mr. Cary Warcop. On Riches' 
side, my lord Fitzwarren, sir Robert Stafford, Mr. Court- 
ney, Digby Hopton, Hungerford. All these fought two 
to two. Then came in two apparelled like Almaines, the 
earl of Ormond and Jacques Granada ; and two came in 
like friars, but the Almaines would not suffer them to 
pass till they had fought. The friars were Mr. Drury and 
Thomas Cobham. After this followed two masques, one 
of men and another of women. Then a banquet of 120 
dishes. This was the end of Christmas. 7th of [January.] 
I went to Deptford to dine there, and brake up the hall."f 
King Edward retained in his service eight players of in- 
terludes, each of whom received an annual fee of five 
marks, and five nobles for livery. J 

The authorship of the interlude of Youth and Riches 
is attributed to sir Thomas Chaloner, one of the lite- 
rary ornaments of the court of Edward VI. The 
English drama was then in its infancy. Imitations 
of Greek tragedies and original humorous farces in 
this reign began to supply the place of the interdicted 
miracle plays, mysteries, and moralities, of the mediaeval 
period. 

Edwardes, the master of the children of the king's 
chapel, dramatized the classic story of Damon and Pythias, 

* King Edward's Journal. f Ibid. 

X Note to king Edward's Journal, by J. G. Nichols. 
24 



370 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

probably for the children to perform ; and a very dull 
and sleepy performance it would have been, had he not 
thought proper to enliven his solemn Greek tragedy by 
introducing into it a comic English interlude, founded on 
an incident he had himself witnessed at the kitchen gates 
of his young royal master's palace, which was so highly 
relished both by the court and commons that his popularity 
became unbounded. Nor is his " Grimm, the Collier," 
wholly forgotten to this day, although few are aware that 
Grimm was not a black diamond of Durham or New- 
castle, but the charbonnier or coal purveyor to the palace 
of the gracious monarchs, Henry VIII. and Edward YI. 
The comic portion of Edwardes' play, as illustrative of 
the bouche of court, and the morale and manners of 
the servitors at Hampton Court or St James's in the 
days of the young Tudor king, is not an unworthy fore- 
shadowing of Shakespeare's humourous characters of 
low degree. The scene in Damon and Pythias, by what 
magic transferred from Sicily it lists not to define, repre- 
sents a kitchen gateway at St. James's Palace, where 
Goodman Grimm, a purveyor of coals from one of 
the king's country palaces, is kept impatiently waiting 
with his coal-sacks, knocking and calling to rouse the 
lazy London varlets pertaining to the kitchen-porter's 
office. At last, he commences vociferously a cry, " For 
the king's own mouth," hoping that the expectation of 
something good to eat would rouse the sleepers. Forth- 
with Jack and Will, the porter's varlets, unclose the gates, 
and Grimm brings in his sacks of coals for the day's 
consumption at the palace of St. James's. Much disap- 
pointed with his wares, the varlets vent their spleen by 
finding fault with the cry that broke their sleep so 
early : 

" Was it you that cried so loud, I trow, 
And bade us ' take in coals for the king's own mouth' just now ? 
Gktmm. 

'Twas I, indeed ! 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 371 

Jack. 

Why, sir, how dare you speak such treason ? 

Doth our young king eat coals at any season ? 
Grimm. 

Here's a gay world ! Boys now set old men to school. 

I said well enough. What, Jack sauce,* thinkest me a fool? 

At bake-house here, at buttery-hatch, kitchen and cellar, 

Do not they cry i For the king's own mouth ? ' 
Will. 

What then, good master collier ? 
Grimm. 

What then ? how without coals can they make the meat 

Fit for the king's mouth ? Does he eat it raw ? 

Therefore still I cry, ' Coals for the king's mouth,' 

Though coals he does not eat. 
Jack. 

St. James ! came ever from a collier's lips 

Answer so trim ? You're learned father Grimm ! 
Grimm. 

I'm not learned, yet the king's collier, 

This forty year have I been king's servitor. 

The morsel of flattery administered by the porter - 
varlets opens the old man's heart, and induces him to 
favour them with various particulars of his personal 
history, as the account of the money he has hoarded, and 
the extreme care he takes of his savings, investing them 
in benters,f by which we verily believe he means deben- 
tures, and these "benters" he declares that he always 
carries about him. One of the porter-varlets instantly 
rushes to the buttery hatch for a supply of very strong 
drink, and the other insinuates to Grimm that he would 
appear a handsome man, and be much looked upon in the 
streets of London and Westminster, if he would permit 
them to shear his elf-locks, shave his ragged beard, and 
wash his blackened face ; in short, that it was not proper 
for a man of his substance and long standing as a court 
official, to appear as if he was only a common collier 
Grimm, whereas he had a right to the title of esquire. 

* There is a herb used in old English Cookery called Jack by the hedge, 
or Sauce alone. 

f So printed in GifFord's edition of Old Plays. 



372 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

On the arrival of "Will with the flagons of strong drink 
from the king's buttery hatch, Grimm, after powerfully 
refreshing himself, submits his toilet to the arrangement 
of his two new varlet friends. He then, with the king's 
strong drink in his head, executes a pas de seul to an 
ancient air, the burden of which is, 

" Too nidden, too nidden, 
Too nidden, too nidden, too loodle nidden, 
And was not Grimm the collier finely sheared ? " 

In the course of his gyrations, poor Grimm falls 
down stupified, when his pocket is picked by the two 
false varlets of his whole fortune in " debentures/' to the 
infinite delight of all the young king's noble attendants, 
and the confusion of all the lackeys and varlets peeping 
at the play in the bye corners of the palace, theatre, or 
cockpit* 

Edward's delight in horses was very great. In December 
he says : " I saw the musters of the new band of men of 
arms ; the horses all fair and great, the least would not 
have been given for less than £20 ; " an enormous sum, 
considering the scarcity of money in his reign. " There 
was none," continues he, " under fourteen handfall, and 
fourteen and a-half for the most part, and almost all 
horses. They passed twice about St. James's field "— now 
the park and royal gardens. 

He had sent, in the preceding autumn, a present of 
six fine English hackneys to the king of France, and 
received in return from that prince " three Spanish 
horses, one Turk," probably an Arabian, " one Barbary, 
and two little mules."f The youthful monarch, who 
delighted in equestrian exercises, and was excessively fond 
of horses, mentions the arrival of this offering with great 
satisfaction. The horses he usually rode were Spanish 

* This play was acted before queen Elizabeth in 1566, and the author 
Richard Edwardes, was appointed master of the children of the Chapel Royal. 

f King Edward's Journal. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 373 

jennets. His favourite white jennet he named Belfioky.* 
This peerless steed, together with his choice ivory lute 
inlaid with precious stones, was after his death given by 
queen Mary to their young cousin, Henry, lord Darnley.f 
None among the effigies of our regal warriors arranged 
by Sir Samuel Merrick at the Tower, presents a more 
martial attitude than this of the boy-Tudor-sovereign 
ruling the lists in his tilt yard. Instead of the tilting 
spear, he holds in his right hand a lance-headed 
truncheon. The armour is of the most exquisite work- 
manship, evidently too full and large for the slender 
stripling, although his high spirit impelled him to inhabit 
this beautiful suit, perhaps to the injury of his own health. 
Its haughty plumed helm, in good proportion, gives the 
best idea of poetic chivalry, which is usually somewhat dis- 
composed by the odd basnets surmounted by the queerest 
of imps, the heraldic animals, which were proudly borne 
as crests by our latter Plantagenets. The horse, however, 
of young Edward is still more disfigured than in the 
preceding age by defensive armour. The steel mask is 
worth observing, with its frightful barred apertures, which 
leave not even the poor animal's eyes at liberty. It is 
connected with a plated guard which puts over the mane. 
The very severe bit and snaffle are linked to a 
plated band by way of bridle, which has a rest, 
leaving the bridle hand occasionally free. All these 
clumsy defences are attached to a sort of plated petticoat, 
fastened to a clasping saddle as difficult to be thrown out 
of as to get into. The poor horse must have been ill 
at ease in this monstrous gear, and little able to bound 
on his native earth for attack or defence ; just as the 
iron -plated frigates, which our neighbours are contriving 
to compete with English nautical skill and courage, will 
be unable to triumph over the breakers of a wave-guarded 
island. All these heavy impediments to the impetuous 
movements of man, horse, and ship have been tried before, 

* State Paper Office MS,, from Domestic Papers, 1560, No. 46, f Ibid. 



374 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



and cast away. The wild rider on the pampas, scarcely 
clothed, with his bare-backed steed and his lasso, would 
have made terrible havoc among the lobster -plated 
chivalry, man and horse, if he had been permitted a 
career in the tilt yard of Greenwich or Westminster.. 







Edward VI. in tilting armour. 
From the Equestrian Effigies at the Tower, arranged by Sir Samuel Merrick. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Close of the Christmas festivities at Greenwich— King Edward returns to 
Whitehall — Duke of Somerset beheaded— Mrs. Huggons' disloyal speech 
of the king— King Edward's lively letter to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick — 
Anecdote of king Edward and sir John Perrot— King Edward's statistical 
essays — Falls sick of the small pox and measles— His recovery — Visited by 
his sister Mary at Greenwich — His summer progress— His conference 
with Cardano the astronomer — Cardano's high opinion of his character and 
attainments — First poor rate in England — Misery and destitution in the 
metropolis — King Edward desires to provide remedies — His conference with 
bishop Ridley— He founds Christ Church school and St. Thomas's hospital. 
— Gives his palace of Bridewell for a reformatory prison (Description 
of portrait and the vignette, from Holbien's painting of king Edward 
granting the charter of Bridewell) King Edward's melancholy and self- 
reproach for his uncle's death — Falls ill of consumptive cough— Goes to 
Greenwich for change of air — Knights sir George Barne in his sick chamber 
— Dangerous symptoms of his malady — He is placed under a female quack 
— He grows worse — General suspicions of poison — Exciting pageant at 
Greenwich during Edward's illness — His temporary rally — Gives audience 
to sir George Barne — Grants endowments for his charitable institutions — 
Confers with sir Thomas Gresham in his sick chamber — His grant to his 
sister Mary — His devise for securing a protestant succession— Sets aside 
both his sisters, and appoints lady Jane Gray his successor — The judges 
and lawyers remonstrate — Edward carries his point — His legacies to his 
sisters— Death-bed words to sir Henry Sidney — His prayer and holy 
death — His obsequies and funeral— Buried before high altar in Henry 
VII.'s chapel— Description of the altar— (See tail piece to this chapter.) 

The last of the pastimes played before king Edward at 
this merry Christmastide, was a tilting match between 
twelve of the gallants of his court, six of a side. This 
was performed on the 17th of January.* That day the 
sports and festivities at Greenwich closed. The plays, the 
masques, the comic interludes, were over, and now a 

• King Edward's Journal. 



376 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

tragedy was to be enacted. During all these faites and 
gestes, which had kept the usually grave, reflective young 
king in a whirl of pleasurable excitement, his uncle, 
the duke of Somerset, was lying under sentence of 
death in his woful prison lodgings in the Tower, appa- 
rently forgotten by all the world. But no ! his hour was 
at hand. A council was holden on the 19th of January 
jat this same palace of Placentia, as Greenwich was 
anciently called, where the marquis of Winchester, who 
presided, read to the other lords of the council a paper, 
which he told them " he had just received in the inner 
privy chamber from the king's own hand," being a 
memorandum, or list, entitled " Certain points of weighty 
matters to be immediately concluded on by my council." 
The third of these points was : " The matter for the duke 
of Somerset and his confederates, to be considered as 
appertaineth to our surety and the quietness of our realm, 
that by their punishment and execution according to the 
laws, example may be shown to others." On the back 
of this paper the following endorsement is inscribed by 
the hand of Cecil, one of the time-serving instruments in 
the destruction of his late master : " These remembrances, 
within written, were delivered by the king's majesty to 
his privy council, at Greenwich, in his majesty's inner 
privy chamber, the 19th of January, 1551 — 2, Ao. 5 of 
his majesty's reign. They were written with his majesty's 
own hands, and received of his majesty's own hands by 
the marquis of "Winchester." A list of the lords of the 
council present is subjoined. This startling historical 
document is still in existence.* 

Edward removed from Greenwich to Westminster on 
the 21st, with his court and council. The next day, 
January 22nd, his uncle suffered. The youthful sovereign 
has recorded the fact in these words : "22. The duke of 

* Cottonian MSS., British Mu- of Somerset is printed, with strong 

seum. Printed in Ty tier's Edward arguments in favour of his innocence 

and Mary, where a copious collection of the charge for which he was con- 

of documents connected with the fall demned. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 377 

Somerset had his head cut off upon Tower Hill, between 
eight and nine in the morning." 

The fact that Edward was persuaded by those about 
him, as he had previously been in the case of his favourite 
uncle, the lord admiral, that it was an act of regnal duty 
to allow justice to take its course, can scarcely excuse the 
insensibility manifested by him on an occasion so awful as 
the blood of another uncle being shed by the hand of the 
executioner. But the indignant conviction that Somerset 
had, by false witness, rendered him instrumental to the 
illegal slaughter of the unfortunate lord admiral, may 
well account for his regarding him as a fratricide, capable 
of any villany that self-interest, jealousy, or ambition 
might suggest. The very terms in which the young 
sovereign ordered the banner and achievements of his 
recently decapitated uncle to be taken down from St. 
George's Chapel at Windsor, afford convincing proof of his 
persuasion of the unworthiness of that unhappy man : — 

"Whereas the hatchments of the late duke of Somerset, attainted 
and put to execution duly for his offence, do remain yet within our 
chapel of Windsor untaken down ; our pleasure is, in respect of his 
said offence, through the which his hatchments deserve not to be in 
so honourable place among the rest of the knights of our order, you 
shall repair to Windsor, immediately upon receipt of these our letters, 
and in your presence cause the said hatchments of the said late duke 
to be taken down."* 

Edward had another uncle of the maternal side, Henry 
Seymour, a happier, and probably a better man than either 
of the two aspiring brethren whose blood has brought 
reproach on the annals of his juvenile reign ; for Henry, 
eschewing the serpentine paths of greatness, preferred the 
life of a quiet country gentleman, passed his days on his 
own demesne, and died with his head on his shoulders. 
The only occasion on which he ever appears to have 
visited the court was to see the coronation of the king, 

* Howard's Letters. From an original in the king's own hand, dated 
" At our palace of Westminster, the 8th of February, in the sixth year of 
our reign." 



378 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

his nephew, by whom he was made a knight of the Bath, 
a distinction, probably, rather thrust upon him by the 
desire of his eldest brother, the protector, than sought 
by himself, for he attained no higher promotion. His 
portion as a younger brother was, of course, small, but 
an estate was allotted to him out of the episcopal lands 
of Winchester.* 

The heartless conduct of Somerset to the orphan 
daughter of his brother, the lord admiral, by the late 
queen dowager, Katharine Parr, was in some measure 
visited on his own young family after his tragic fate. 
His sons were all disinherited, and rendered incapable 
of succeeding to his honours and demesnes. Of these 
four sons, three, strangely enough, bore the Christian 
name of Edward. The eldest, sir Edward Seymour, 
by Somerset's first wife, Catharine Fillol, had previously 
been most unjustly superseded, to please his step-mother, 
the haughty Anne Stanhope, in favour of her first-born 
son, to whom Somerset, in compliance with her unjust 
desire, gave the name of Edward and the title of 
Hertford, to the manifest wrong of his eldest son; and, 
as if this were not enough, endowed him with the lands 
derived from Catharine Fillol. A patent was, however, 
granted by Edward VI., to restore these, as far as it was 
possible, and to make compensation for those which had 
been sold out of the estates settled on the heirs of Anne 
Stanhope ; but the title of Hertford was never restored 
to him, though his usurping brother was, for a time, dis- 
possessed of it by act of parliament. There was a third 
brother, Edward, Somerset's youngest boy, the god-son 
of king Edward, then about four years old. The sum of 
two thousand four hundred pounds out of their father's 
forfeited estates was accorded for their maintenance, and 
they were consigned to the guardianship of the marquis 
of Winchester. The young king, their cousin, made no 
exceptions in the favour either of his infant godson 
* Heylin; J. G. Nichols. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 379 

Edward, or his favourite young kinsman, Edward, carl of 
Hertford, who had been educated with him, accustomed 
to share his sports at barriers, shooting, riding, and run- 
ning at the ring, and with whom he corresponded in 
Latin, addressing him as "Most sweet kinsman.'' 

So evanescent, alas ! is the favour of princes. The 
daughters of Somerset, six in number, were even more 
pitiable than his sons ; the eldest, lady Anne, was mar- 
ried to Northumberland's eldest son, the earl of Warwick, 
and though not involved in poverty like her younger 
sisters, was in constant domestication with the man who 
had brought her father to the block. Lady Margaret, 
who had been betrothed, with her royal cousin's appro- 
bation, to lord Strange, was not only forsaken by him in 
that fearful shipwreck of their fortunes, when both her 
parents and her uncle Stanhope were arrested and sent to 
the Tower, but she had the anguish of learning that he 
had become a voluntary witness against her unfortunate 
father, by betraying Somerset's natural wish that the king 
should marry her sister, lady Jane. As for poor lady Jane, 
instead of being selected to share her. royal kinsman's 
throne, she, as well as lady Margaret, was insulted by the 
king's officials, and subjected to the indignity of personal 
search for such trinkets and toys as they had naturally 
accounted their own personal property. These young 
ladies, with their two little sisters, Maria and Catharine, 
were sent to their aunt Cromwell, who was most reluctant 
to allow them house-room and food in their destitution, 
and, to judge by the tone in which she mentions them 
in her hard, unnatural letter to the council,* gave them 
neither sympathy nor comfort in their sore distress. The 
council granted lady Cromwell fifty pounds per annum for 
each of these unfortunate children, and finally increased it 
to one hundred. There was also an infant girl, Elizabeth, 
only in her second year, to whom the king's aunt, lady 
Smith, widow of sir Clement Smith, of Badow Hall, 

• Strype. 



380 , EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Essex, accorded a shelter, receiving 100 marks a-year for 
her maintenance. The widowed duchess, mother of these 
unfortunate young ladies, remained a prisoner in the 
Tower till after king Edward's death.* 

Edward's conduct in regard to his uncle Somerset was 
very indignantly commented upon by Mistress Elizabeth 
Huggons, lately in the service of the duchess of Somerset, 
the wife of William Huggons, a gentlemen in the duke's 
service, who said : " The king was an unnatural nephew, and 
that she wished she had the jerking of him." For this 
disloyal observation she was committed to the Tower by 
the council ; and also because she had, one night, at the 
house of sir William Stafford, when told, " that my lord 
Guildford Dudley should marry my lord of Cumberland's 
daughter, and that the king's majesty should devise the 
marriage," exclaimed, with reference to the supposed 
policy of Northumberland in seeking an alliance with a 
lady in the line of the royal succession, " Have at the 
crown, with your leave !"f As the information was given 
by sir William Stafford himself, it was probably true, 
and Mrs. Huggons suffered a long imprisonment in the 
Tower, for the natural but imprudent licence she had 
given her tongue on this occasion. 

The very day after Somerset's execution, king Edward 
wrote the following familiar, chatty letter to his absent 
friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, without making the slightest 
allusion to the tragic event of the preceding day — an 
instance of reserve or caution almost unparalleled in a 
youth of the usually frank age of fourteen. A letter 
written by him at such a time must be regarded as 
a very curious historical document : — 



* Somerset's great estates were Russell, the first earl of Bedford, 

parcelled out among the greedy di- his treacherous colleague and pre- 

plomatic cabal whose successful ma- tended friend, and remain in the 

chinations effected his fall. Covent possession of the representatives 

Garden and the Seven Acres, called of that fortunate family to this day. 
Long Acre, became the prey of John f MS. Harleian. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 381 

" Edward, 

" We have received your letters of the 28th of December, whereby 
we perceive your constancy both in avoiding all kinds of vices, and 
also in following all things of activity or otherwise that be honest 
and meet for a gentleman, of the which we are not a little glad, 
nothing doubting of your continuance therein. We understand, also, 
by certain letters you sent to the earl of Pembroke and Mr. Yice 
Chamberlain, that you have some lack of muletts, and that you 
desire to have some sent to you of ours, whereupon we have considered 
that our muletts being old and lame, will do you but little service, 
at least than good ones bought there. For which cause, we have 
willed Bartholomew Champaigne, to deliver you 300 crowns by 
exchange, for the buying of you two muletts over and besides your 
former allowance. 

I ( Here we have little news at this present, but only that the 
challenge you heard of before your going was very well accomplished. 
At tilt there came eighteen defendants ; at tournay, twenty ; at 
barriers they fought eight to eight on Twelfth night. This Christmas 
hath been well and merrily past. Afterward there was a match at 
tilt, six to six, which was very well run. Also because of the lord 
Rich's sickness, the bishop of Ely was made chancellor of England 
during the parliament. 

" Of late there hath been such a tide as hath overflown all meadows 
and marshes. All the Isle of Dogges, all Plumsted Marsh, all Sheppey, 
Foulness in Essex, and all the sea coast, was quite drowned. We hear 
that it hath done no less harm in Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, 
but much more, for towns and cities have there been drowned. We 
are advertised out of Almaine, that duke Morice is turned from the 
Emperor, and he with the protestants levieth men to deliver the old 
duke of Sax, and the landgrave out of prison. 

II The cause of our slowness in writing this letter hath been lack of 
messengers, else we had written before time. Now shortly we will 
prove how you have profited in the French tongue, for within a while 
we will write to you in French. 

" Thus we make an end, wishing you as much good as ourselves. 
At Westminster, the 23rd of January, 1551.* 

Somerset's brother-in-law, sir Michael Stanhope, sir 
Miles Partridge, sir Thomas Arundel, who had married 
the sister of the unfortunate queen Catherine Howard, 
and sir Ealph Yane, all suffered death for their alleged 
share in offences for which the duke, their patron, was 

* Printed in Fuller's Worthies, also in Literary Remains of king Edward. 



382 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



beheaded. The young king, who, of course, only repeated 
what he was told by his ministers and council, notes : 
"January 27th, sir Ealph Vane was condemned for 
felony in treason, answering like a ruffian.*" Sir Ealph 
Vane, like the other three, protested his innocence of 
either practising against the life of the king or any of the 
lords of his council, and observed that his blood would 
make Northumberland's pillow uneasy to him."f 

A few weeks later, Somerset's friend, lord Paget, was 
deprived of his stall among the knights of the Garter, 
and the reason for this mortifying treatment is thus 
naively explained by the young sovereign in his record 
of the 22nd of April : " The lord Paget was degraded 
from the order of the Grarter for divers his offences, 
and chiefly because he was no gentleman of the blood, 
neither of father's side nor mother's side." Paget, being 
then a prisoner in the Tower, very meekly resigned his 
George when Garter king of arms came to demand it of 
him in the king's name. J 

Among the courtly gallants who had distinguished 
themselves in the chivalric exercises in which Edward so 
greatly delighted, was sir John Perrot, the reputed nephew 
of his Greek master. Perrot had been placed in Edward's 
household, shortly before his death, by Henry VIII. whose 
illegitimate son he is generally supposed to have been, 
from the strong resemblance between him and that 
monarch both in person and character. He was knighted 

* King Edward's Journal. of William Paget, one of the ser- 

f Foxe. geants-at-mace of the city of Lon- 

J It was restored to him shortly don. "He lived to build not boast a 

after Edward's death, by queen generous race," and surely objections 

Mary, and he was solemnly re-in- on the score of lineage came with a 

vested, as the record shows, in bad grace from Northumberland, the 

which his previous degradation is son of the extortioner sir John 

attributed to the malice of North- Dudley, who, with his colleague 

umberland — on whose son, the earl of Empson, had suffered on the scaffold 

"Warwick, the garter thus vacated for his public offence in the first year 

was conferred — not the arrogance of of Henry VIII.'s reign. — Stow's 

the young king, or the alleged defect Chronicle. Ashmoles' Eegister of 

in Paget' s pedigree. He was the son the Order of the Garter. 



ul 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 383 

at Edward's coronation, and Perrot's fine person, superior 
stature, strength, and skill in all manly games and chivalrie 
exercises, always excited the admiration of the young king, 
while the pliancy with which he conformed himself to all 
his tastes and inclinations, gained him a distinguished 
place in the royal favour. It was in consequence of the 
confidential friendship subsisting between him and Edward 
that sir John Perrot was appointed to attend the marquis 
of Northampton on his late embassy "to the court of 
Henry II. of France, to open a treaty of marriage between 
the young bachelor sovereign of England and Elizabeth 
of France. While at that court, Perrot acquitted him- 
self brilliantly at all the jousts, tilts, and tourneys, given 
for the entertainment of the English ambassador, but 
more particularly during a great hunting match, by 
stepping before a gentleman who was in imminent peril 
of his life from the attack of an infuriated boar, and dex- 
terously striking off the head of the formidable animal 
with his broad sword. The king of France, who had seen 
the exploit, exclaimed, " Beanfoile /" and, in the excite- 
ment of the moment, honoured the gallant English knight 
with a hearty embrace. Sir John Perrot, not under- 
standing French manners, and imagining Henry was 
challenging him to a trial of strength, unceremoniously 
cast his nervous arms about his most christian majesty's 
waist, and lifted him a considerable height from the ground, 
Henry, far from being offended at so great a violation of 
courtly etiquette, laughed heartily, and invited him to 
enter his service, promising to give him good preferment 
and a handsome pension, if he could be induced to do so. 
Sir John, after making suitable acknowledgments for his 
majesty's flattering offer, said "that he possessed ample 
means of support in his own country, and that his services 
were devoted till death to the king of England, his own 
beloved and gracious sovereign, a prince too liberal and 
considerate ever to allow him to want for anything." * 

* Biographia Britannica. 



384 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Sir John Perrot, thus courted and admired at the 
French court, launched into so magnificent a course of 
living, in entertaining his foreign friends, that he was 
obliged to mortgage his estates, and on his return to 
England, found himself overwhelmed with debts to the 
amount of seven or eight thousand pounds, an enormous 
sum in those days. Being without any apparent means 
of extricating himself from those embarrassments, he took 
the following ingenious method of acquainting his 
generous young sovereign with his pecuniary distress, 
without making a direct appeal to his compassion. 
Proceeding to a sequestered spot in one of the royal 
gardens, at the hour he knew Edward was accustomed 
to take a solitary walk there to study his lessons, he 
began to bewail himself most passionately with 
sorrowful exclamations, in the way of a soliloquy on 
his own inconsiderate folly for having wasted his time, 
and spent all his property fruitlessly in the royal 
service. "Alas ! " cried he, " and am I to be the man 
to bring an ancient house to ruin, that hath continued 
so many years in credit and prosperity. Better that 
I had never been born, than to have wasted in so 
few years the inheritance that my ancestors have been 
centuries in acquiring. Woe is me, what am I to do to 
recover my estate ? Shall I continue at court, or shall I 
go to the wars, and try to obtain some command whereby 
I may win a fortune to make up for my losses ? If I con- 
tinue at court it will be but a vain hope, for, though the 
king may be graciously pleased to grant me somewhat, 
out of his liberal favour in recompence for my past 
services, yet, being young and under government, the 
privy council might gainsay it, and I should, by re- 
maining here, only run myself into further expenses, 
and complete my ruin." 

So skilfully did the usually blunt Perrot act his part, 
by blending his soliloquy with the most passionate 
demonstrations of grief, that his guileless young sovereign, 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 385 

who had, as he anticipated, arrived meantime, attracted 
by his favourite knight's sorrowful gesticulations and 
lamentations, came softly behind him to listen, and 
having overheard what was especially intended for his 
royal ear, came forward, and addressing him with kindly 
sympathy, cried, " How now, sir John, what hath befallen 
you that you make this heavy moan ? " 

"I did not think your highness had been so near ? " 
exclaimed sir John Perrot, in well counterfeited confusion 
and surprise : " belike," continued he, " your grace may 
have overheard somewhat of my foolish complaints ? " 
" Yes, we heard you well enough," said Edward : " and 
have you," he compassionately added, " spent your estate 
in our service ? and is the king so young and under 
government that he cannot give you anything in recom- 
pense of your services ? Find out somewhat to make 
suit for, and you shall see whether the king has not 
power to bestow it upon you."* 

Sir John humbly thanked his gracious young sovereign, 
and availing himself of this opening, mentioned a " con- 
cealment," as it was termed, an undeclared portion of the 
property of a nobleman whose estates had been escheated 
in the preceding reign ; and this being (in consequence of 
his information) claimed by the crown, was bestowed 
upon him at the desire of the king. 

This grant enabled him to pay his debts, and to live in 
ease and affluence during the residue of Edward's reign, 
with whom he enjoyed unbounded favour, t 

* Biographia Britannica. 

f Although the reputed son of a mar- was in some trouble in consequence 

riage between Thomas Perrot of Har- of having been wounded by one of 

oldston and Mary, the granddaughter the yeomen of the guard in a dis- 

of Maurice, lord Berkeley, there is rea- graceful fray. The king, instead of 

son to believe sir John Perrot derived reproving, commended him for his 

his paternity from Henry VIII. spirit and courage, promised him pre- 

Henry's first introduction to the ferment and favour, and placed him 

young man took place at the house of in the household of prince Edward, 

the marquis of Winchester, when he Perrot took care not to neglect so 
25 



386 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



During the rest of the winter of 1551-2, the young 
monarch occupied his ever- active pen in drawing up 
various papers on subjects to which he desired to call 
the attention of his council and parliament. One of these 
was entitled, " Reasons for establishing a mart in Eng- 
land," in rivalry to Antwerp, then the world's fair.* He 
names Southampton as the most desirable place for the 
great seat of commercial greatness which he desired to 
be the means of founding in England, and says much on 
the subject well worthy of admiration from a prince of 
his immature age and slight experience in such matters. 

Among the acts Edward was desirous of having passed 
in the parliament then sitting, as he has certified in his 
own hand, was one to prevent the injurious practice to 
the church, then shamelessly pursued by lay impropria- 
tors of ecclesiastical endowments, of doling out a scanty 
stipend to such unlearned and inefficient persons as could, 
for the performance of the duty, be induced to undertake 
it on the lowest terms, while they grasped the lion's 
share themselves. This measure, which the failing health 
of the young royal deviser rendered abortive, is briefly 

fair an opening. Not only Edward orders both of queen and council, and 
VI., but lUary and Elizabeth treated using very disrespectful expressions 
sir John Perrot with remarkable con- regarding the queen. On his recall 
sideration, for, though he displeased he was committed to the Tower, tried 
Mary by his zeal for the reformed by a special commission of the 
religion, he boldly presented a peti- crown ministers, found guilty, and 
tion to her for the gift of the castle sentenced to death. When he was 
and lordship of Carew; and, notwith- informed by the lieutenant of the 
standing her austere looks, came so Tower, Perrot used these remark- 
unceremoniously close to her as to able words, ' Will the queen indeed 
tread on her train. She granted his sacrifice her own brother to please 
petition, and allowed him to live in the his skipping adversary ? " meaning 
castle during her reign. By Elizabeth Hatton, the lord chancellor. The 
he was treated with distinguished queen reprieved him during pleasure, 
favour, and was appointed in the but he died of a. broken heart. — 
year 1583, lord deputy of Ireland, Life of sir John Perrot. Coxe'sHis- 
which office he filled five years, tory of Ireland. Naunton's Nuguae 
carrying matters with so high a hand Antiquse. Biographia Britannica 
as to disregard, in many instances, the Camden's Elizabeth. 

* Kin«: Edward's Literarv Remains. 






EDWARD THE SIXTH. 387 

described by him, as " An act that no patron shall give 
less to the parson than the whole benefice, nor reserve 
thereof any commodity to himself." Edward also sketched 
a scheme for a bill "for restraining excess in apparel/ ' 
which he desired to have carried through parliament 
this sessions, being a vain attempt at reviving the 
sumptuary laws of the mediaeval sovereigns: "And," 
observes Strype, "the king's own royal pen drew it up 
after the example of his noble father, who used to draw 
up many bills to be enacted in parliament, and to super- 
vise, correct, and interline many more." Much misery 
might undoubtedly be prevented, if persons of humble 
position and narrow means were precluded from incurring 
the ruinous expenses so often criminally indulged in, by 
vain and presumptuous attempts to ape the dress of those 
in a more elevated station ; and it is no slight proof of 
young Edward's legislative wisdom, that he had perceived 
the evil, and desired to devise a remedy ; but his regula- 
tions suited not the temper of the times in which he 
lived, far less could they be acted upon in our own. After 
a long list of the expensive articles of dress his majesty 
thought proper to prohibit to persons under a certain 
rank, he proposes to enforce his regulations in these 
terms : — 

" The forfeiture is, to all that be gentlemen, the loss of 
the apparel and the value thereof. To all other, it is the 
loss .of the apparel, and sitting five days in the stocks. 
In the court the usher may seize the apparel, and if he 
commence not his action within fifteen days, then the 
lord chamberlain. Likewise on the queen's side, her 
ushers and chamberlain. Any man to seize apparel worn 
out of the court."* We may imagine the tragi- comic 
scenes attempts to act on the suggestions of our young 
royal bachelor for the restraint of unsuitable finery 
would have caused, especially among the female portion of 
his over-dressed subjects. He does not, however, appear to 

• Ibid. 



388 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

anticipate the possibility of resistance to his august will, 
but with all the decisive energy of a true Tudor sovereign 
has written, " The act to take place after Whitsuntide." 
The establishment of the revised edition of the liturgy 
in English was an easy matter in comparison. The 
majority of his subjects consented to worship after the 
manner prescribed by the authority of king Edward, 
his council, and parliament ; but to conform their dress 
to the regulations his majesty wished to impose, was an 
infringement on their liberty of taste to which no 
Englishman, much less Englishwoman, would submit. 
So the national excess in apparel continued unrestrained, 
even by the national distress caused by the high price 
of food, and the repeated reductions in the value of the 
currency. 

Early in the spring this year Edward took the infection 
of the measles, which was followed by an attack of small 
pox. He mentions this in his journal of 2nd of April, 
1552, in the following brief notation : " I fell sick of the 
measles and small pox." On the 15th of the same month 
he adds : " The parliament brake up, and because I was 
sick and not able to go well abroad, I signed a bill con- 
taining the names of the acts I would have pass, which 
bill was read in the house. Also I gave commission to 
the lord chancellor, two archbishops, two bishops, two 
earls, and two barons, to dissolve wholly this parliament." 

It has been generally affirmed that Edward never 
regained his health after this double illness, but in a 
long letter written by him to his absent friend, Barnaby 
Fitz-Patrick, dated the 3rd of May, he speaks of himself 
as perfectly recovered: "We have," he says, "a little 
been troubled with the small pox, which hath letted us 
to write hitherto, but now have we shaken that quite 
away.' 5 

Nine days after the date of the above letter to his young 
friend, Edward appears to have recovered his health, 
strength, and activity, for he rode on horseback through 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 389 

Greenwich Park with his guard, to see them practise their 
archery, they being in their jerkins and doublets with 
their bows and arrows. The same day his grace ran at 
the ring with some of his young lords and knights,* and 
on the 16th of May he rode again in Greenwich Park 
to see the grand muster of his men-at-arms, and those 
furnished by his nobles, f The malady must therefore have 
laid but a gentle hand upon him, and there is no reason 
to believe it left any disfiguring traces to mar the beauty 
of his features and complexion. His preceptor, sir John 
Cheke, fell dangerously ill about this time. Edward, who 
was much attached to him, sent every day to inquire after 
him with comfortable and sympathising messages. At last 
his physicians assured the king they had no longer any 
hope of his life, and had given him up as a dead man. 
"No," replied Edward, "he will not die at this time, for 
this morning I begged his life from God in my prayers, and 
feel assured they have been heard." As sir John Cheke, 
to the astonishment of every one, began to amend rapidly, 
and presently regained his health and strength, his royal 
pupil obtained the credit from his enthusiastic admirers 
of having worked a miracle by his superior holiness. £ 

Cheke wrote a noble and manly letter of advice to 
his royal pupil dated, " Out of my death bed."§ 

Edward remained at his pleasant palace of Green- 
wich till the latter end of June. AVhile there he received 
a visit from his sister Mary, who came in her barge 
from the Tower wharf, landed at his palace stairs at 
Greenwich, and stayed with him till six in the evening. 
He removed to Hampton Court on the 27th of June, 

* Machyn's Diary. he was induced, by fear of death, to 

t Ibid. sign a recantation, and became a 

{ Fuller. nominal member of the Church of 

§ It would have been well for the Rome. He died broken-hearted soon 

reputation of this good and learned after this compulsory change of creed. 

man had he died then, for after the His daughter, Maria Cheke, was the 

death of his royal pupil, and the first wife of Sir William Cecil, the 

marriage of queen Mary to Philip II., celebrated lord Burleigh. 



390 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

going by water as far as Putney, and there took his 
horse for Hampton Court. After a brief sojourn there, 
he commenced his summer progress on the 7th of July, by 
removing to Oatlands and other places, accompanied by 
his council and many of his household, and attended by 
his guards and heralds. Garter king of arms received 
ten shillings a day for his pay, Clarenceux and Norroy 
each a mark. Ulster, the king of arms for Ireland, whose 
office had only just before been created, had the like 
allowance ; Somerset, four shillings ; Rouge, Dragon, and 
Bluemantle, two.* 

Edward remarks, "that it was necessary to retrench 
the number of his followers, because the train was thought 
to be near 4,000 horse ; which were enough," he says, " to 
eat up the country, for there was little meadow nor hay 
all the way as I went."f 

Whilst riding from Lichfield to Southampton, the king 
lost the large pear pearl from the central jewel of his 
golden carcanet, a very great and rich diamond, with a 
great ruby enclosed in a flower, gold enamelled, from which 
depended the said costly pearl. It was, however, found 
several months after, and in the following May delivered 
through sir John Gates, vice-chamberlain, to the lord 
treasurer, J at a time when the young royal owner was 
past caring for any of the glittering toys of the temporal 
kingdom from which he was departing. 

While Edward was resting at Christchurch, near the 
New Forest, he wrote to his absent favourite, Barnaby 
Fitzpatrick, giving the following lively and business- 
like history of his movements up to that point. His 
progress had been diversified with field sports, though 
the time of year must have been warm for hunting. 

* The Lancaster Herald and Port- money by giving arms to rich men 

cullis were at that time in prison, of low degree. King Edward's 

degraded from their honourable Journal, 
offices, and in imminent danger of f Ibid. 

being hanged, for having forged J Note to King Edward's Literary 

Clarenceux's seal, in order to get Remains, by Nichols- 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 391 

Barnaby was then attending the king of France on his 
campaign : — 

u Being now almost in the midst of our journey, which We have 
undertaken this summer, We have thought good to advertize you 
since our last letters dated at Greenwich, We departed from thence 
towards a thing far contrary to that wherein, as we perceive hy your 
diligent advertisement, you and all the country you are in are 
occupied ; for whereas you all have been occupied in killing of 
your enemies, in long marchings, in painful journies, in extreme 
heat, in sore skirmishings, and divers assaults, We have been occu- 
pied in killing of wilde beasts, in pleasant journies, in good fare, in 
viewing of fair countries, and rather have sought how to fortifie our 
own, than to spoil another man's. And being thus determined came 
to Guildford, from thence to Petworth, and .so to Cowdray, a goodly 
house of sir Anthony Browne's, where we were marvellously, yea, 
rather excessively banqueted. From thence we went to Havenaker, 
a pretty house beside Chichester. From thence we went to Warb- 
lington, a faire house of sir Richard Cottons ; and so to Waltham, 
a faire great old house, in times past the bishop of Winchester's, and 
now my lord treasurer's house. In all these places we had both 
good hunting and good cheer. From thence we went to Ports- 
mouth town, and there viewed, not only the town itself and the 
haven, but also divers bulwarks, as Chattertons, Waselford, with 
other, in viewing of which we find the bulwarks chargeable, massy, 
well-rampirecl, but ill- fashioned, ill-flanked, and set in unmeet 
places, the town weake in comparison of that it ought to be, too 
huge great, for within the walls are faire and large closes and 
much vacant room ; the Haven notable, great, and standing by 
nature, easy to be fortified. And for the more strength thereof, 
We have devised two strong castles at the mouth thereof ; for at 
the mouth the haven is not past ten score — over, but in the 
middle almost a mile over, and in length for a mile and a-half 
able to bear the greatest ship in Christendom. From thence we 
went to Lichfield, the earl of Southampton's house, and so to 
Southampton town. The citizens had bestowed for our coming 
great cost in painting and repairing and rampiring of their walls. 
The town is handsome, and for the bigness of it as fair houses as 
be at London. The citizens made great cheer, and many of them 
kept costly tables. From South Hampton we came to Bewly, a 
little village in the middle of the jSew Forest, and so to Christ- 
church, another little town where we now be, and in the New 
Forest. And having advertised you of all this, We think it but 
good to trouble you any farther with news of this country, not 



392 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

only that at this time the most part of England (thanks be to 
God) is clear of any dangerous or infections sickness."* 

Edward's next move was to Salisbury, where lie arrived 
on the 24th of August. He was received by the mayor 
and aldermen in their robes on horseback, and was pre- 
sented with a silver gilt cup, value ten pounds, containing 
twenty pounds in gold. During his four days' sojourn in 
that neighbourhood, while engaged in hunting, the young 
sovereign was lost by his courtiers, but they found him 
again in Falston lane, near Bower Chalk, in the parish 
of Bishopstone. "Old good wife Dew," as she was called, 
of Braid Chalk, who lived to complete her 103rd year, 
told Aubrey, the antiquarian, that she remembered seeing 
king Edward on that occasion, being then a girl of fifteen. 
She died in 1649.f 

Edward came to Wilton on the 28th, where he was 
entertained by the earl of Pembroke, the widower of 
queen Katharine Parr's sister, Anne Parr. J He reached 
Winchester, Sept. 5th, where he received very graciously 
a book of loyal and laudatory Latin verses, composed 
by the Winchester scholars in honour of his visit. That 
by Thomas Stapleton illustrates the king's progress from 
his palatial castle of Greenwich to their city, with 
pretty notices of all the places where he had halted. § 
Edward rested two nights on his homeward tour at 
Doddington Castle, once the abode of the father of Eng- 
lish poetry, Chaucer, which had descended by the marriage 
of his grand-daughter and heiress, Alice Chaucer, the 
favourite friend of Margaret of Anjou, to William de la 
Pole, duke of Suffolk, and had been, on the fall of that 
family, granted to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, 

* King Edward's Letter to Barnaby f Natural History of Wiltshire. 

Fitz-Patrick, dated Christ Church, J Edward records the countess of 

Aug. 22, printed in Fuller's Church Pembroke's death in his Journal, 

History. Feb. 20, 1551—2. 

§ Printed in Literary Remains of King Edward VI., edited by J. G. 
Nichols. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 393 

whose son-in-law, Henry Gray, duke of Suffolk, was 
now the possessor. The young king was probably enter- 
tained by this nobleman and the lady Frances, and 
' enjoyed the opportunity of seeing and conversing with 
his lovely and accomplished cousins, lady Jane Gray and 
her sister Katharine. From Doddington Castle, beside 
the town of Newbury, Edward came on to Reading. 
There he was received by the mayor, accompanied by 
the principal inhabitants of the town at Colby Cross, 
all being on foot. The mayor on his knee humbly 
welcomed his grace, and having first kissed the mace, 
presented it to him. The fair young king most gently 
stayed his horse to receive it, and graciously returned 
it to the mayor; the mayor then remounted his horse, 
and conducted his grace through the town to the ancient 
palace, called the king's place, and as it was his first 
visit to the town, complied with the ancient custom on 
such occasions, by presenting him with two yoke of oxen, 
which cost fifteen pounds, all the town being rated to 
defray the expense of the civic offering to royalty.* 
Edward arrived safely at Windsor, Sept. 15, after his 
pleasant excursion through the midland counties. 

Notwithstanding Edward's treaty for his matrimonial 
alliance with France, the policy of Henry II., in leaguing 
with the Sultan to bring the invading force of the Turks 
against the empire of Germany, so greatly shocked our 
young Christian sovereign that he determined to oppose 
it. The subject was brought before his council, Sept. 
19th. " After long reasoning it was determined," notes 
the royal chronicler, " and a letter sent in all haste to Mr. 
Morysine, willing him to declare to the emperor, that I, 
having pity, as all other Christian princes should have, 
on the invasion of Christendom by the Turk, would will- 
ingly join with the emperor and other states of the 
empire, if the emperor could bring it to pass in some 
league against the Turk and his confederates, but not 
* Nichols' Notes to kin^ Edward's Journal. 



394 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

to let it be a-known of the French king ; but if the 
emperor would send a man into England he should 
know more. The reasonings be in my desk."* This 
chivalric feeling for the defence of Christians does the 
youthful monarch honour. He immediately recalled his 
absent friend Barnaby, who was at that time serving in 
the French army, and further manifested his own sen- 
timents on the subject by composing an essay in Greek 
on repelling the Turks. He had previously written one 
in Latin on the same exciting theme. f 

After Edward's return to Whitehall, he granted an 
audience to the celebrated Milanese physician and astro- 
nomer, Griralmo Cardano, who was desirous of presenting, 
personally, his learned books, "De Rerum Varietate," 
which were dedicated by permission to his majesty. 
Edward, who always treated literary men with great 
attention, received Cardano in his gallery, and having 
graciously accepted the volumes, inquired " on what 
subjects they treated ?" "On many, as their titles inti- 
mate,''' replied Cardano; "but in the first chapter I 
show the long-hidden and vainly sought after nature of 
comets." "And what is the cause ?" asked Edward, with 
deep interest. "The concourse and meeting of the 
lights of the erratic stars," replied the purblind astron- 
omer of the sixteenth century. The young king, who 
had studied celestial science attentively with his pre- 
ceptor, Dr. Cheke, and was a deep thinker, rejoined: 
" But, seeing that the planets are moved with several 
motions, how cometh it to pass that the comet doth 
not either dissolve and scatter with their motion?" J 
" It moves, indeed," observed Cardano, " but with a 
far swifter motion than the planets, by reason of the 
diversity of the aspect, as we see in crystal, and the 
sun, when a rainbow reboundeth upon a wall, for a little 

* King Edward's Journal. f King Edward's Literary Remains. 

J Cardanus Lib. de Genitioris. See also Godwin's Annals of King 
Edward's Life. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. o95 

change maketh a great difference of the place." " But 
how," objected Edward, " can that be done without a 
subject? for the wall is the subject to the rainbow." To 
which Cardano answered : " As in the galaxia, or milky- 
way, and as the reflection of lights where many lighted 
candles are set near one another, they do produce a 
certain lucid and bright mean." 

" You may know the lion by his paw, as they say," 
observes our eloquent author, after recording the sub- 
stance of his conference with the royal youth; "his 
ingenuous nature and sweet conditions rendered him great 
in the expectations of all, whether good or learned men. 
He began to favour learning before he could know it, 
and he knew it before he knew what use to make of it. 
Oh, how true is the saying, ' Precocious growths are 
short lived, and rarely arrive at maturity.' This prince 
could give you a taste of his virtues, not an example. He 
was stored with graces, for, being yet a child, he spake 
many languages, his native English, Latin, French, and, 
as I hear, was also skilled in Greek, Italian, and Spanish. 
He wanted neither the rudiments of logic, the principles 
of philosophy, nor music. He was full of humanity, had 
the highest sense of morality, and displayed the gravity 
befitting royalty of hopes like his. A child of so great 
wit and promise could not be born without a kind of 
miracle of nature. I write not this," continues our 
author, " hyperbolically, for to speak the truth were to 
say far more." 

Cardano lodged with his friend and brother astronomer, 
sir John Cheke, and cast both his nativity and that of the 
young king. He predicted that il Edward would always 
suffer from delicate health, though he might possibly live 
to be fifty-five years old." When he was afterwards 
twitted with the blundering prediction he had made, he 
said " he had omitted in his calculations the middle hour, 
and therefore his scheme was imperfect ; but even if he 
had perceived the dark shadow in the house of life, he 



396 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

should not have dared to make it known ; and perceiving, 
as he did, without the aid of astrology, how everything 
in England lay at the mercy of Northumberland, he was 
glad to escape out of the realm in safety." 

An astrolabe and a quadrant were made for king 
Edward's use, adorned with a fac-simile of his signature 
in Latin, Edivardus Rex, and the initials of his tutors. 
Nicholas Cratzer, a Bavarian, who was accustomed to 
lecture on astronomy at Oxford, was Edward's master 
in that science, with a quarterly fee of a hundred 
shillings. The royal tyro wrote a Latin declamation 
in praise of astronomy. Eobert Eecord, who was the first 
in England to adopt the Copernican system, dedicated 
the second edition of his " Ground of Artes" to our 
young learned king. 

A very elaborate catalogue of Edward's library has 
been printed by the erudite editor of his Literary 
Remains in that work. 

The celebrated Scotch reformer, John Knox, after his 
liberation from the French galleys, came to England, and 
occasionally preached before king Edward. It has been 
commonly said that he was one of the royal chaplains ; 
but there is no evidence of this, and his undisguised 
hostility . to the English liturgy renders it improbable. 
He was, however, highly favoured by Northumberland, 
the leader of the puritan party, who expressed a fervent 
desire "that it might please the king to appoint Mr. 
Knocks to the bishopric of Rochester;" but neither would 
Edward, who loved not those who opposed his liturgy, 
appoint a bishop of that fashion, nor would Knox depart 
from his principles to receive a bishopric. He had estab- 
lished a numerous presbyterian congregation at New- 
castle, whither resorted great numbers of the Scotch to 
hear his stormy eloquence. This being quite opposed to 
Edward's statutes of uniformity of worship, threatened to 
be a source of great inconvenience ; and Northumberland 
vainly endeavoured, by offers of rich livings and benefices, 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 397 

to draw the intractable northern Boanerges to a more 
southern district and a milder ministry. At last, just 
as he had learned to spell Knox's name properly, and 
to understand his temper, he dissolved the connexion 
by declaring to Cecil, "that he loved not to have any- 
thing to do with men that were neither grateful nor 
pleaseable."* 

The first poor-rate on record in England was gathered 
this year. " In the month of August," says our authority,! 
"began the great provision for the poor in London, 
towards the which every man was contributory, and gave 
certain money in hand, and covenanted to give a certain 
sum weekly." How necessary this arrangement was, let 
the following passage in a sermon preached before the 
king in the preceding Lent, by Lever, master of St. John's 
College, Cambridge, from the text, " So the men sat dow r n 
in number about five thousand " (John vi, 10), testify : " 
merciful Lord, what a number of poor, feeble, halt, blind, 
lame, sickly ; yea, with idle vagabonds, and dissembling 
caitiffs mixed among them, lie and creep, begging in the 
miry streets of London and Westminster. It is too great 
pity afore the world, and too utter damnation before 
God, to see these begging as they use to do in the 
streets : for there is never a one of them," continued the 
preacher, addressing himself pointedly to the king, " but 
he lacketh either thy charitable alms to relieve his need, 
or else thy due correction to punish his fault. These silly 
souls have been neglected throughout all England, and 
especially in London and Westminster. But now I trust 
that a good overseer, a godly bishop I mean, will see that 
they in those two cities shall have their needs relieved, 
and their faults corrected, to the good example of all 
other towns and cities. Take heed that there be such 
grass to sit down there as ye " — again addressing the 

* Letters from Northumberland to Cecil. Life and Works of J, Knox, 
edited by David Laing, Esq. 
f S:ow. 



398 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

king — " command the people to sit down; that there be 
sufficient housing and other provision for the people there, 
as ye command them to be quiet." The earnestness of 
the preacher, and the personal manner in which he 
brought the condition of his people home to the young 
king, who appears always to have felt and understood 
the responsibility of his position as a legislator, made 
a deep impression. Soon after, Ridley, bishop of London, 
" preaching before his majesty at Westminster, on the 
excellence of charity, made a fruitful and godly exhorta- 
tion to the rich to be merciful to the poor ; above all, 
that such as were in authority should travail to comfort 
and relieve such as were in sickness, sorrow, or any other 
adversity." Edward's tender heart was touched at the 
picture of the sins and sorrows of such as he was told 
were swarming in London and Westminster, without any 
good order or care taken of them. Acting on the gene- 
rous impulse of the moment, he sent the bishop a message 
when the sermon was ended, desiring him not to depart 
till he had spoken with him. The bishop being shown 
into a private gallery where two chairs were placed, the 
young king came to him, made him sit down beside him, 
and be covered, and having given him* hearty thanks for 
his sermon, proceeded to discuss several points, which, 
according to his usual practice, he had noted for especial 
consideration, and spoke so admirably on them all, that 
Ridley, when relating the particulars of this interest- 
ing conversation with his youthful sovereign, observed: 
" Truly, truly, I could never have thought that excel- 
lency to have been in his grace that I beheld and heard 
in him."t "My lord," said Edward, after adverting to 
the bishop's exhortation in behalf of the poor, "you 
willed such as are in authority to devise some good order 
for their relief; wherein I think you mean me, for I 
am in highest place, and therefore am the first that 

* Grafton's Chronicle. 
f Grafton's Chronicle; Trollope's History of Christ's Hospital. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 399 

must make answer to God for my negligence, if I should 
not be careful therein, knowing it to be the express 
commandment of Almighty God to have compassion of 
his poor, needy members, for whom we must make an 
account unto him. And truly, my lord, I am, before all 
things else, most willing to travail that way, and doubting 
nothing of your approved wisdom and learning, who have 
such good zeal as wisheth help unto them : also you have 
had conference with others what ways are best to be 
taken therein, the which I am desirous to understand ; 
I pray you, therefore, to say your mind/' 

Ridley was so taken by surprise at the earnest, straight- 
forward manner in which the youthful sovereign came to 
the point, that for a moment he wist not how to reply. At 
length he observed, "that the city of London, on account 
of its abundant population, and the destitute condition of 
the poor, appeared the most desirable field for the exercise 
of the royal benevolence, and advised that letters should 
be addressed to the lord mayor, requiring him to consult 
with such assistance as he might think most meet to 
advise with on the matter." Edward wrote the letter on 
the instant, and Ridley delivered it the same evening, and 
the result of the deliberation was presently laid before his 
majesty,* " That the poor of London might be delivered 
into three classes. The poor by impotency : such as 
young fatherless children, the decayed, the crippled, 
and the old. The poor by casualty : as the maimed, the 
sick, and the diseased. Thriftless poor, whom idleness 
and vice had reduced to indigence and want." 

It was proposed to provide a suitable asylum for 
each of these classes. Three were accordingly founded : 
Christ's Church school, from the magnificent monastery 
of the Gray Friars, for the education of poor children ; 
St. Thomas's Hospital, for the relief of the sick and 
diseased ; and Bridewell, for the correction and amendment 
of the idle and vagabonds. For the latter purpose 

* Ibid. 



400 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Edward gave his royal palace so called. In the old 
chapel, which was destroyed in the great fire of 1666, 
a portrait of the king was fixed near the pulpit, with 
the following inscription beneath it in the characters 
of the period : — 

" This Edward of fair memory the Sext, 
In whom with greatness, goodness was commix't, 
Grave this Bridewell, a palace in old times, 
For a chastising house of vagrant crimes.' , 

Fortunately, Holbein's noble historical painting of the 
young king, presenting the charter of Bridewell to 
the lord mayor, sir George Barne, in the great hall, has 
been preserved. It is from that picture the vignette on the 
title page of this volume has been taken, and also our 
portrait of king Edward in his chair of state, detached 
from the group of courtiers and citizens, by whom he is 
surrounded in the original painting. He wears his cap of 
estate of ruby velvet, surrounded with a regal coronal of 
gems. His parliamentary robe of crimson velvet is lined 
and furred with miniver, with a small round cape of 
miniver, over which is the collar of the Garter, formed of 
large round blue enamel medallions, with red roses in the 
centre, linked with true love knots, and the George 
depending from the centre.. His doublet is of tawny 
damask, brocaded with gold, and a border of gold beset 
with gems. He has short, full trunk hose, like what are 
now called " knickerbockers/ 5 but of purple velvet, striped 
with gold. His sleeves are tight from the elbow to the 
wrist, finished with muslin ruffles, and a small partlet 
collar open in front. He has hazel eyes and a fair 
complexion; his countenance is sweet, intellectual, and 
reflective, with rather a pensive cast, but bearing a 
striking resemblance, both in contour and features, to 
his royal cousin, Mary, queen of Scots. A lovely couple 
they would have made ; and if Edward had survived her 
short-lived concort, Francis II., she would doubtless 
have accepted him with joy. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 401 

There is also a fine painting by Holbein in the hospital 
hall at Christ Church school, representing king Edward 
granting the charter of that beneficent and truly-royal 
institution, which was originally intended for orphan 
children, girls as well as boys. Why the intention of 
the young royal founder should have been frustrated in 
this matter is not so easy to explain. The girls and 
their mistress are represented in this picture dressed in 
the russet livery in which king Edward's orphan scholars 
were clad at the opening of the school, when nearly four 
hundred children, boys and girls, were assembled. 

There is another portrait of king Edward in the 
possession of Frederick Barne, esq., of Dunwich Priory, 
and Sotterley Hall, in the county of Suffolk, the de- 
scendant and representative of sir George Barne, the 
philanthropic lord mayor, which was probably presented 
to sir George by the young king. He is there 
represented as more healthy, manly, and vigorous than 
in Holbein's portraits of him, having also more shade 
in the face, so that we are disposed to regard it as the 
work of Edward's Flemish artist, Guillaume Stretes. He 
appears there about fifteen years of age, with a nobly 
developed benevolent brow, intellectual eyes, and energetic 
expression of countenance ; his features are regular and 
beautiful, the contour of his face a fine oval. His 
dress is a loose short gown of crimson brocade, laced 
with gold and furred with ermine, thrown open to show 
his rich doublet, which is girt to his waist with a black 
velvet girdle ; his trunk hose of white satin are striped 
with purple velvet ; he has short full velvet sleeves, puffed 
from the shoulder, and tight white satin ones below the 
elbow to the wrist, finished with white ruffles; his hands 
are very small and delicate. He wears a black velvet cap, 
turned up with a roll of the same material, above which 
are four pointed leaves of gold, jewelled. His attitude is 
spirited, and he holds a regal staff. It has every trait 
of being an original likeness taken before he fell into 

26 



402 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

ill health the and languor which characterises his portrait 
in the Hall at Bridewell. 

Gruillaume Stretes, a Dutchman, was paid fifty marks 
for painting the young king in 1551-2. Anthony Toto, 
sergeant painter, Baretemew Penn, painter, and maistress 
Levyn Terling, paintrix, were all regularly salaried artists 
in the royal household, as well as Nicholas Lyzarde, and 
Nicholas Modena, carver. It is to be observed that 
maistress Levyn Terling is the first female artist ever 
mentioned in England. 

The new service book, or the revised edition of king 
Edward's Liturgy,* from which everything that could be 
considered of a superstitious tendency had been carefully 
expunged, was used on the 1st of November, this year, 
in St. Paul's cathedral, and in all the churches in London, 
Bishop Ridley performed the service in the morning at 
St. Paul's in his rochet only, and in the afternoon he 
preached at St. Paul's Cross a sermon explaining the 
liturgy, and the alterations that had been made, which 
sermon lasted till five o'clock in the evening. The lord 
mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, and companies, who attended 
in their best robes, went home by torchlight, and were 
unable to attend the evening service in the cathedral. 
From that day copes and vestments were prohibited to 
the prebendaries, and the bishops left off their crosses. f 

In the month of November, this year, Edward brings 
his chronicle or journal, as it is now called, abruptly to a 
close. His last entry is — " 28. The lord Paget was put 
to his fine £6000 and £2000 diminished, to pay it with 

the space of years, at days limited — " Thus we lose 

this curious and valuable guide for the residue of his life 
and reign. The remarkable brevity with which Edward 
expresses himself, has perhaps prevented him from telling 
his mind : in some instances, notes exist in the State 
Paper office, in a different hand, of various passages 
which were afterwards copied by him into this record, 
* See Appendix. f Stow's Chronicle. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 403 

of the events of his reign. Possibly the entries of the 
execution of his two uncles were thus prepared. 

Hayward tells us that, although king Edward at first 
betrayed no displeasure at the death of Somerset, 
yet, soon after, he grew pensive and heavy, and upon 
speech of him he would sigh : and often his tears might be 
seen to fall. Sometimes he would passionately exclaim : 
11 Ah ! how unfortunate have I been, to those of my 
blood ! My mother I slew at my very birth, and since 
have made away with two of her brothers, and haply 
to make way for the purposes of others against myself. 
Was it ever known before that a king's uncle did lose 
his head for felony — a felony not clear in law, and but 
weakly proved. Alas ! how falsely have I been abused, 
how little was I master over my own judgment, and how 
weakly was I carried, that both his death and the envy 
[desire] thereof must be laid to my charge."* Edward is 
also said to have manifested the indignant misgiving he 
occasionally felt on this subject in regard to Northumber- 
land. One day when engaged with his courtiers in 
shooting at the butts, Northumberland, who never lost 
an opportunity of flattering, exclaimed, " Well shot, my 
liege!" "But you shot closer to the mark, my lord, 
when you shot off my good uncle Somerset's head," 
retorted Edward bitterly, f 

Due diligence being, as usual, exerted to amuse the 

* Strype, without producing either truth, and that with the candour of 

authority or reason for attempting an impartial historian. He lived so 

to impugn sir John Hayward's narra- close to the period, that he might well 

tive of this touching burst of self- have recorded these pathetic words 

reproach on the part of the ingenu- from the lips of some of Edward's 

ous young monarch, sneeringly ob- young companions, who heard him 

serves " a good speech made for the give utterance to them, in moments 

king, but not by him." But unless when the excitement of pastimes, 

cause had been shewn for the ob- pageantry, and business was succeeded 

jection he has thus insinuated, we by the dejection of sickness, and its 

are decidedly of opinion that sir necessary seclusion from pleasure and 

John Hayward has related the society. 

f Fuller's Church History. 



404 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

youthful sovereign, that Christmas he kept open hall 
again at Greenwich palace, and thither came, as on the 
preceding year, by water, George Ferrers, the lord of 
misrule, and his mirthful coadjutors. It does not appear 
that the entertainments were either so magnificent or 
elaborate as before, but perhaps they were of a more 
refined character, for we are told " that Ferrers was lord 
of all the Christmas disports for twelve days, and so 
pleasantly and wisely behaved himself, that the king had 
great delight in his pastimes;"! also, "that he gave him 
a liberal reward." 

During the Christmas holidays it unfortunately hap- 
pened that king Edward, after overheating himself in the 
tennis court, drank a copious draught of cold water, which 
brought on a sudden and dangerous attack of illness from 
the chill it occasioned. " His siokness," says Hay ward, 
" did more apparently shew itself by the symptoms of 
a tough, strong, straining cough. All the medicines and 
diet that could be prescribed were unavailing to abate 
his grief, which, so far from abating, daily increased by 
dangerous degrees." 

The famous " apostle of the North," Bernard Gilpin, 
was appointed to preach before the court at Greenwich on 
the first Sunday after the Epiphany; but Edward was not 
well enough to appear, and his council took the oppor- 
tunity of absenting themselves also on this occasion. 
The preacher being much disappointed, and not under- 
standing the serious cause which prevented the attendance 
of his heavenly-minded young sovereign, introduced the 
following reproachful passage into his sermon : " I am 
come this day to preach to the king, and to those which 
be in authority under him. I am very sorry they should 
be absent which ought to give example, and encourage 
others to the hearing of God's word, and I am the more 
sorry that other preachers before me complain much of 
their absence. But you will say they have weighty 

* Stow; Loseley MSS. ; Nichols. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 405 

affairs in hand. Alas ! hath God any greater business 
than this ? If I should cry with the voice of Stentor, I 
would, if I could, make them hear in their chambers; but 
in their absence I will speak to their seats as if they were 
present. I will call upon you, noble prince, as Christ's 
anointed." Poor Edward, whose greatest delight was 
listening to sermons, would have required no Stentorian 
voice to summon him to the signal treat of listening to 
so good and eloquent a preacher of practical holiness as 
Bernard Gilpin, if the severe tearing cough which had 
seized him, had allowed him to be present without dis- 
turbing others. 

He made a temporary rally soon after, and returned 
to Whitehall, but relapsed. "It was not only the 
violence of the cough that did infest him, but therewith 
a weakness and faintness of spirit which showed plainly 
that his vital parts were strongly and strangely as- 
saulted,* and in consequence a report began to be 
circulated that he was suffering from the effects of a 
slow working poison that had been administered to him." 
Some said, "by the papists;" but as they had no access 
to his privy chamber, the more prevailing opinion was 
by Northumberland, at that time recognized as the head 
of the ultra-protestant party in England. The agent 
pointed at, by popular suspicion, as the administrator of 
deadly successive doses, which it was pretended were gra- 
dually given, was no other than lord Robert Dudley, 
Northumberland's third son, the last appointed lord of 
the bed-chamber to king Edward. Though the reputa- 
tion of this favourite of fortune became notorious as a 
poisoner in the reign of Elizabeth, there was no apparent 
reason why that stigma should have been attached to 
him at this period. "A nosegay of sweet flowers had 
been presented to the young king as a most choice 
offering on new year's day," and as his illness com- 
menced immediately afterwards, it was said that a subtle 

* Hay ward. 



406 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

poison had been introduced through, that medium, which 
had implanted the seeds of wasting decay and death.* 
These reports were in accordance with the spirit of the 
times, which invariably attributed the deaths of sove- 
reigns to unfair means. 

Edward received a visit from his sister Mary, on the 
10th of February. She rode in great state from her 
house in Clerkenwell, through Fleet street to Whitehall, 
attended by a great number of nobles, knights, and gen- 
tlemen, and all the great ladies of the court. She was 
received at the outer gate of Whitehall by Northum- 
berland, Suffolk, and the great officers of the royal 
household, who conducted her to the presence chamber, 
and there Edward himself met and saluted her. It 
must have been evident from his altered appearance, 
and the incessant cough that harassed him, that his 
young life was hastening prematurely to a close. It 
does not appear that any opportunity for private con- 
versation between the royal brother and sister was 
allowed by Northumberland and his creatures, by whom 
the king was surrounded. 

The new parliament, which had been summoned to 
meet on the 1st of March, assembled in the king's great 
chamber at Whitehall, to spare him the fatigue of going 
to Westminster. He assumed, however, his parliamen- 
tary robes, and proceeded with his peers to attend divine 
service in the chapel, with the sword of state borne 
before him, and his train, supported by his lord chamber- 
lain, assisted by sir Andrew Dudley, Northumberland's 
brother. A sermon was preached by Ridley, bishop of 
London, on this occasion, and the young sovereign par- 
took of the holy communion with several of the lords ; 
after which he proceeded to his great chamber, where he 
took his place under his royal canopy, and the parliament 
was opened in his presence by his lord chancellor, who 
" delivered a proposition in his name," which would now 

* Hay ward : Heylin. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 407 

be called a speech ; which, says the record, was done 
because the king was sickly.* 

Edward gave audience to the Commons on the 4th of 
March on his throne, in the same chamber, and again 
on the last day of that month received the Speaker's 
address, announcing the concession of the subsidy, gave 
his royal assent to seventeen acts which had been 
passed, and dissolved the parliament after this short ses- 
sions, in which all that was required by the great dictator 
Northumberland had been done. 

Edward's Irish friend, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, returned 
from France this month, and received proof that his 
sovereign had not been unmindful of his pecuniary in- 
terests in his absence, having endowed him with two rich 
abbeys, and confirmed to him the grant of the crown 
lands held by his father as tenant in capito.f 

King Edward's school at Christ Church, was so well 
established this spring, that on Easter Monday, between 
three and four hundred boys, clothed in russet coats 
with red caps, walked in procession to St. Mary's, Spital 
Fields, with their masters, to hear the sermon ; also a 
goodly show of maiden children, clad in the same 
livery, with white kerchiefs on their heads, with their 
matrons, took their places on a high stage that had 
been built up for them, which was regarded as a fair 
sight.J 

* Nichols' Literary Remains of king Edward VI. 

f After the death of his young royal ing any pecuniary rewards except 

master, Barnaby Fitz-Patrick es- one hundred pounds, which he dis- 

poused the cause of queen Mary, and tributed as rewards among his follow- 

distinguished himself in the sup- ers. Elizabeth created him baron of 

pression of the Wyat insurrection. Upper Ossory, and gave him finally a 

He was knighted by the duke of pension for his services. He married 

Norfolk for his exploits at the siege Joan, the daughter of sir Roland 

of Leith. He supported the cause Eustace, viscount Baltinglass, by 

of queen Elizabeth against the native whom he had one only daughter, 

Irish chiefs, in a manner that won Margaret, first wife of James, lord 

the warmest eulogiums from the lord Dunboyne, He died in 1581. 
deputy Sidney. He declined receiv- % Stow. 



408 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Edward sent for the benevolent lord mayor, George 
Barne, whose exertions had so ably seconded his own 
good intentions in carrying out his philanthropic plans 
for the good of the city of London ; and after thanking 
him warmly for all he had done, bestowed the well- 
deserved honour of knighthood upon him.* The same 
afternoon, Edward left Whitehall for Greenwich, perform- 
ing this his last remove in life by water. The royal 
barge was saluted by a general salvo from all the 
Tower guns, and the ships in the river all the • way 
to Ratcliff ; the four new ships that were rigging there, 
to go to Newfoundland, shot off guns and chambers a 
great many, as he passed. f 

The change from the bustle and noise of Whitehall 
to the green quiet glades of his favourite palace of 
"Placentia," appeared, at first, to produce a beneficial 
influence on the health and spirits of the royal invalid, 
and he made a brief rally. The duke of Northumber- 
land wrote to Cecil, "that their sovereign lord began 
very joyfully to amend, and the physicians entertained 
no doubt of his recovery, the more so because he had 
promised to follow their advice for the future. " This 
was all deceptive, for, as early as the beginning of 
February, perceiving that the king's cough and illness 
augmented every hour, Northumberland had called a 
consultation of the most eminent physicians in England, 
including Dr. Owen and Dr. Wendy, who had been in 
attendance on Edward from his birth, and having sworn 
them to secrecy, to every one but himself, demanded their 
real opinion as to the state of his majesty's health. They 
replied, after their consultation, " that the king was 
sick of a consumption; that his disease was incurable, 
and would end in death, but they thought he might 
survive till September." 

* Machyn's Diary. Sir George Barne was the last knight Edward VI. 
ever made. 

f Tbid. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 409 

Northumberland's first stop, after ho had acquired this 
information, was to ally himself with the royal family, 
by getting the dying king to consent to a marriage 
between his only unmarried son, lord Guildford Dudley, 
with lady Jane Gray, the eldest daughter of Henry Gray, 
duke of Suffolk, and lady Frances, daughter of Mary 
Tudor, youngest daughter of Henry VII. and queen- 
dowager of France, by her second marriage with Charles 
Brandon, duke of Suffolk, on whose posterity the crown 
had been most unjustly entailed by Henry VIII. to 
the exclusion of the lineage of Margaret Tudor, queen 
of Scotland, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. Not to 
dwell here on the injury the tyrannical dictation of Henry 
VIII. was calculated to inflict on his realm, by endeavour- 
ing to defeat his wiser father's enlightened prediction of 
the peaceful union of England and Scotland through the 
posterity of his daughter Margaret and James IV. in- 
heriting the crown in the event of the male line of Tudor 
failing ; suffice it to say, that nothing but civil strife 
could result from trying to invert the legitimate order of 
the regal succession. 

Northumberland had not, in the first place, ventured 
openly to solicit the king's consent to the marriage of his 
youngest cadet with the first princess of the blood royal. 
No ; he contented himself, before the death of Somerset 
had cleared the field of a rival power, with endeavouring 
to obtain the hand of her young cousin, lady Margaret 
Clifford, the daughter of Eleanor Brandon, the younger 
sister of lady Frances, for his son Guildford ; and even 
this was regarded as presumption allied to treason. 

"Have at the crown, by your leave," had been the 
shrewd comment elicited by the first rumour of this 
marriage, from one who intuitively penetrated Northum- 
berland.^ ambitious policy. He had, however, obtained 
the king's consent to this union, derogatory as it was to 
a princess of the royal blood ; but as lady Margaret was 
not only the junior in the line of the royal succession, but 



410 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

of too tender age to answer the purpose of setting her up 
as a puppet queen, to the exclusion of the king's sisters, 
the queen of Scotland, Margaret, countess of Lennox, and 
her English-born son, Henry, lord Darnley, Frances, 
duchess of Suffolk, and her three daughters, he suddenly 
changed his tack, and, during the king's mortal sickness, 
deluded that weak man, the duke of Suffolk, into accepting 
his only unmarried son, lord Guildford Dudley, as a 
husband for his eldest daughter, lady Jane Gray; the 
settlement he offered to make on the bride being no less 
than the crown of England for her and her heirs, and 
failing these, to be successively inherited by her sisters 
and their heirs. The flattering bait was eagerly swal- 
lowed. The duchess Frances, though still young enough 
to bear sons, as, indeed, she actually did after her second 
marriage, submitted to waive her rights in favour of her 
daughter. Northumberland succeeded in obtaining the 
king's consent to this matrimonial alliance, and the mar- 
riages of lady Katharine Gray with lord Herbert, the 
eldest son of the earl of Pembroke by Anne Parr, sister 
of the late queen Katharine; and the earl of Huntingdon, 
who was the representative of George, duke of Clarence, 
and therefore in the second line of Plantagenet in the 
royal succession, to his youngest daughter, lady Katha- 
rine Dudley. 

He obtained, moreover, the king's signature to a 
warrant addressed to his brother, sir Andrew Dudley, 
keeper of the royal wardrobe, for endowing the said 
brides and bridegrooms with dresses and decorations for 
their wedding from the jewels and gold and silver stuffs, 
formerly the property of the late duke and the duchess of 
Somerset. The plenishing for the lady Margaret Clifford, 
whose hand the great dictator now intended to transfer 
to his brother, sir Andrew Dudley, was also to be 
supplied from the same plunder.* As the poor young 

* MS. Reg. 18, cxxiv. f. 340, Cited in Literary Remains of king Edward 
VI. Roxburgh Club Book. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 411 

king lay dangerously ill at Greenwich at the time these 
marriages were celebrated at Durham house, we may 
conscientiously acquit him of any share in the application 
of the spoils of the unfortunate -Seymour family to this 
disgraceful purpose. His signature, it is true, appears to 
the warrant directing sir Andrew Dudley to deliver the 
jewels and costly stuffs to be devoted as described above ; 
but this was easily procured by Northumberland, without 
putting the dying prince to the trouble of reading the 
paper he was required to sign. Edward was at that time 
so ill, that his physicians had unanimously declared his 
case to be hopeless. A certain gentlewoman, however, 
presented herself before his council, and confidently en- 
gaged to cure him if he might be wholly given up to her 
care, and his physicians dismissed. Northumberland 
having induced the council to accede to her proposition, 
his physicians were removed, and she was admitted to 
attend and prescribe according to her own devices. The 
means employed by this female quack, instead of relieving 
the young royal patient, produced the worst possible 
effects. His legs swelled, his complexion altered to a 
livid sallow tint, his hair fell off, and his symptoms as- 
sumed so perilous an aspect, that his physicians were 
recalled. The laundress who washed his shirts lost her 
nails and the skin off her fingers, which gave rise to a 
suspicion that drugs of a very deleterious nature had 
been employed, and these reports were strangely corro- 
borated by the circumstance of his apothecary hanging 
himself.* 

Youth, however, struggled hard for life. Another deceit- 
ful rally took place, and it was confidently said, in the 
middle of May, that he was recovering. Noailles, the 
new French ambassador, gives the following account of 
the royal invalid to his sovereign : " You have been heard 
that the illness of the king, your good son and brother, 
was so serious, that little hope of his recovery was 

* Heylin's History of the Reformation. Hay ward ; Nichols. 



412 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

expressed by his doctors, and still less hy the great per- 
sonages, about him. But God, perceiving the trouble 
that would result from his death, has been pleased so far 
to restore him, that he is now out of danger, though in a 
great state of debility, with a cough that harasses him ; 
but the expectoration is not of a pulmonary character, as 
far as we could judge yesterday, when he was pleased to 
grant us audience ; but it was very brief, merely to receive 
me and take leave of my predecessor, the lords of his 
council having previously entreated us not to make him 
read the letters, nor yet to enter further into discourse 
with him than was absolutely necessary, but to wait till 
a further improvement in his strength allowed him to 
receive us again."* 

The flattering reports of the king's amended health 
elicited a letter of congratulation from the princess Mary, 
on the 16th of May, to her royal brother ; and he testified 
a kindly feeling towards her by the present of a fair 
table diamond with a pendant pearl, f 

It was pretended, at this time, by Northumberland and 
his emissaries, that the king was so well amended as to be 
able to take the air every day in the gardens of the 
palace ; but as no one ever saw him, this did not long 
deceive his anxious and sorrowful people. 

The exciting event of a great naval pageant occurred 
at Greenwich on the 20th of May, one of such peculiar 
interest, too, to the enlarged mind of the young sovereign, 
that if anything could have drawn him beyond the pre- 
cincts of his sick chamber once more, this would have done 
so. In consequence of the encouragement of the veteran 
voyager, Sebastian Cabot, whom king Edward had patro- 
nized and pensioned — nay, more, talked of creating for 
him the honourable and suitable office of Grand Pilot of 
England — a company of merchant adventurers, headed by 
the patriotic lord mayor, sir George Barne, had fitted 
out three great vessels, under the command of sir Hugh 

* Noaille's Despatches, May 1 8th, 1553. f Strype. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 41 o 

Willoughby, for the purposo of discovering a North- 
eastern passage tlirough the Arctic regions, for trading 
with the unknown parts of Moscovy and Cathay.* These 
gallant ships, which had saluted king Edward's barge as 
he took his last voyage from Whitehall, being now 
ready for sea, "were towed down the Thames by 
boats manned with stout mariners apparelled in watchet 
or sky blue cloth, who rowed amain, and made way 
with diligence." When they approached Greenwich, the 
courtiers ran out to view the brave spectacle, and the 
common people nocked from all quarters and thronged 
the shore. The privy council looked out from the win- 
dows, and others of the household ran up to the tops of 
the towers. The ships, as soon as they came opposite the 
palace, began to discharge their ordnance and shoot off 
their pieces, to salute the sovereign ; so that the Kentish 
hills resounded, the valleys and the waters gave an echo, 
and the mariners shouted in such a sort, that the sky 
rang again with the noise thereof. * * " To be short/' con- 
tinues our authority, " it was a very triumph, after a sort, 
to all beholders ; but, alas ! the good king Edward, in 
respect of whom principally all this was prepared, he only, 
by reason of his sickness, was absent from this show."f 

* Stow. These ships were built and made their way into Russian 
at the cost of three thousand pounds, Lapland, and were frozen to death, 
by the enterprising company of but their fate was never satisfactorily 
Merchant Adventurers, for the pur- elucidated. Challoner, more fortu- 
pose of discovering the north-east nate, discovered the entrance of the 
passage to China and India. They "White Sea, and wintered at Arch- 
sailed from the Nore the same day angel. He traversed Russia in the 
they had saluted king Edward's the spring, and made his way to 
palace at Greenwich, but sir Hugh Moscow, where he was favourably 
Willoughby and his consort ship were received by the Czar, Ivan Vasili- 
separated from the one commanded gevitch, who gave him a letter at 
by Challoner, by a violent storm parting, addressed " to the king of 
off the northern extremity of Nor- England." It was, of course, meant 
way ; the last time he and his crew for the royal flower, who, long before 
were heard of was at Nova Zembla, it was written, had been " laid in 
whence it is believed they landed, his morning freshness in the tomb." 
f Hakluyt's Voyages, vol 1, page 245. 



414 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Again a temporary amendent took place in the symptoms 
of the royal invalid. On the 6th of June he was able to 
receive the lord mayor, sir George Barne, once more, in 
order to confirm the charters of his three charitable 
foundations, and to secure the funds for their maintenance. 
A blank having been left in the patent for the sum of 
yearly value in the endowment, he called for pen and 
ink, and with his own hand, filled up the space with 
these words, "Four thousand marks by year;" and 
as soon as he had written these words, he raised his 
eyes to heaven, and fervently exclaimed, " Lord God, I 
yield thee most hearty thanks that thou hast given 
me life thus long to finish this work to the glory of thy 
name."f 

Thirty-nine free schools and several hospitals were 
founded during the brief reign of Edward VI., the 
majority of them through the personal influence and 
munificence of this accomplished young sovereign. 

The following particulars regarding the fluctuations 
of his flattering malady, are supplied by the letter of a 
foreign contemporary: — 

" We have no news, except that the king, who had lately been in 
the most imminent danger from a most severe cough, which had 
already attacked his inside even to the very vitals, is now somewhat 
better, though it is hardly possible that his health will be entirely 
restored during the whole of this summer. Meanwhile, however, 
he has always been most favourably disposed toward religion, and 
is so at this time more than ever. May God preserve him to his 
church.":); 

In the middle of June, the fast sinking king struggled 
with the weakness of his fatal malady, so far as to vouch- 
safe an audience to the prince of English merchants, sir 
Thomas Gresham, who had been for the two preceding 
years his confidential agent in Flanders, for carrying out 

f Speed's Chronicle. 
X John TTtennovis to Bullinger, Letters printed by the Parker So- 
London, June 7th, 1553. Original ciety. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 41 

some of his favourite schemes for the improvement of the 
woollen trade and the extension of commerce. So deeply 
interested had the youthful monarch been in the progress 
of these undertakings, that, not choosing to trust to the 
reports of subordinates, he had sent for Gresham by an 
express, to repair to him from Antwerp, and held personal 
conferences with him very many times. This was their 
last meeting, under deeply affecting circumstances, at 
which poor Edward, " ever generous and just, out of 
consideration of my great losses and charges and travails 
taken by me in these causes," says Gresham, " it pleased 
the king's majesty to give unto me one hundred pounds 
[a year] to me and my heirs for ever, three weeks before 
his death, and promised me, with his own mouth, that 
he would hereafter see me rewarded better, saying, " I 
should know that I served a king ; and so I did find 
him, for whose soul to God I daily pray."* 

It was at this period, when Edward was setting his 
house in order, and earnestly intent on giving stability to 
the infant reformation, to which he had proved so true a 
nursing father, that he was persuaded by Northumber- 
land, seconded by the instances of the influential clique 
of the sons and sons-in-law of that ambitious statesman 
by whom he was surrounded day and night, that it was 
his duty to appoint a protestant successor to the throne. 
That he did not do this by superseding the Roman 
Catholic heiress-presumptive, Mary, in favour of his other 
sister, Elizabeth, who made so strong a profession of his 
own creed, has always been regarded as an inscrutable 
mystery ; but the estrangement that had been created 
between the royal brother and sister on account of 
Elizabeth's encouragement of the addresses of the lord 
admiral, and all the ugly stories circulated at that time, 
had evidently never been removed. He had recently 
testified remarks of brotherly affection and care for Mary, 

* Memorial by sir Thomas Gresham, in Burgon's Life of sir Thomas 
Gresham, 



416 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



by settling upon her the royal castle and domain of 
Hertford and its appurtenances,* but there are no such 
evidences of his love and respect for Elizabeth. Once, 
and once only, had she been received at court since the 
delicate investigations that had taken place about her and 
the lord admiral, and that was not till after the fall of 
Somerset. The duke of Northumberland had since torn 
her mansion of Durham place from her, though she had 
defended her rights with a high hand, and protested her 
determination " to come and see the king her brother at 
Candlemas ; " but Northumberland traversed her inten- 
tion. Perhaps if she had courted, instead of defying this 
all powerful dictator, she would have had the offer of one 
of his sons for a consort and the regal succession, instead 
of his choosing lady Jane Gray, for the shadow under 
whose name he intended to reign over England. 

Edward was, however, induced to set aside the zealous 
protestant, Elizabeth, as well as the obstinate papist, 
Mary. A paper in his own autograph, written during 
the last stage of his fatal malady at Greenwich, is still in 
existence, entitled, " My device for the succession to the 
crown," June, 1553, f showing, that it was his desire to 
settle the crown on the Tudor line of Brandon, to the 
exclusion of his own sisters, and in direct contradiction of 
the king, his father's will, which had, in default of 
Edward's heirs direct, appointed Mary to succeed him, and 
in default* of her heirs, Elizabeth. Edward, in his device 
for the succession, first named lady " Frances, duchess of 
Suffolk, and her heirs male, provided they were born 
before his death ; " but Northumberland induced him to 
substitute " the lady Jane Gray and her heirs male, and 
failing these, the heirs male of her sisters and their heirs 
male, and after them, lady Margaret Clifford and her 
heirs male." In default of heirs male from any of these 
ladies, then the crown was to pass in the female line, 
going back {o the female posterity of lady Jane ; but so 

* Strype, 520. f MS. Petyt; Inner Temple Library, vol. 47, f. 3:7. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 417 

bent was the king on the succession of males in preference 
to females, that a son of one of the younger sisters of 
Lady Jane, or even of lady Eleanor Clifford, was to have 
the priority before a daughter of lady Jane herself. 
A fruitful source this Tudor salique law would have 
proved for civil wars, if the line of Gray had been 
established on the throne. But the " king's device " was 
too shadowy a pretence for the exclusion of the right 
heirs to the succession, therefore Northumberland per- 
suaded his majesty to have it, as far as possible, legalized 
by a solemn document, drawn by the judges of the realm 
and other great law officers of the crown. 

" This device, first wholly written with his most gracious 
hand, was after copied out in his majesty's presence by 
his most high commandment, and confirmed with the 
subscription of his majesty's own hand, which was 
attached in six several places ; and then, by his highness, 
delivered to certain judges and other learned men, to be 
written in full order."* 

The narrative of sir Edward Montague, chief justice 
of Common Pleas, supplies the following particulars, 
the more interesting, because it introduces us into the 
presence of the dying sovereign for the last time. Mon- 
tague received a letter from the council on the 11th of 
June, " commanding him to attend his majesty at Green- 
wich the next day, and to bring with him sir John Baker, 
the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Justice Bromley, 
the attorney general, Griffin, and the solicitor general, 
Gosnold."f When they arrived, they were introduced 
into the presence of the king, with whom were the lord 
treasurer, the marquis of Northampton, sir John Gates, 
and one or two others of the council. The king then 
declared with his own lips, "how in his sickness he had 
considered the state of their lives, realm, and succession, 

* Literary Remains of king Ed- f Burnet's History of the Refor- 

ward VI. Printed for the Roxburgh mation. Sharon Turner's History of 

Club. Burnet; Turner; Tytler. England. 

27 



418 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

which if he should depart without heirs of his body, 
would go to the lady Mary, who was unmarried, and might 
marry a stranger born, whereby the laws of this country 
and his proceedings in religion might be altered ; where- 
fore it was his pleasure that the crown should go to 
such persons as he had now appointed, in a bill of 
articles, signed with his own hand," which were then 
read, and his majesty commanded them "to make a 
book thereof with speed," (meaning to engross them in 
proper form on parchment.) Sir Edward Montague, and 
the other great law officials, made divers objections, 
" both to the uncertainty of the articles, and also, 
because his majesty's device was against the act of 
succession, which, being an unrepealed act of parliament, 
could not thus be set aside." Edward, however, in a 
peremptory tone, told them "it was his pleasure that 
they should draw the bill according to his device." 
This he bade them "take away with them, and make 
speed."* 

The lawyers, on consultation, proceeded to Ely house, 
where they told sir William Petre, principal secretary of 
state, in the presence of the council, " that not only would 
the execution of the device be treason after the king's 
death, but that the very drawing it during his life would 
be treason." The duke of Northumberland on being in- 
formed of their answer, burst into the council chamber 
in a great fury, called sir Edward Montague " traitor," 
and said " he would fight with any man in his shirt in 
that quarrel." The lawyers, standing to their opinion, 
were dismissed, but departed in great fear of their lives." 
Sir. Edward Montague and the other lawyers were then 
summoned to appear before the council at Greenwich, on 
the 15th of June. They were, on their arrival, conveyed 
into a chamber behind the dining room, where all the 
lords looked at them with strange countenances, for the 
purpose of intimidating them, and finally they were 

* Narrative of sir Edward Montague. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 419 

brought before the king himself, the whole council being 
present.* 

The sick king, who had evidently been tutored and 
goaded by Northumberland, demanded with sharp words 
and angry countenance, "why they had not made his 
book according to his commandment ? " Sir Edward 
firmly, but respectfully, explained their reasons, as he had 
previously done to the council at Ely Place — adding, 
" that if the writings were made they would be of no force 
after his majesty's decease, while the statute of succession 
would remain in full force, because it could only be abro- 
gated by the same authority whereby it was established, 
that of parliament." " We mind to have a parliament 
shortly," replied the dying sovereign. "If that be your 
majesty's intention," rejoined Montague, "this may be 
deferred to the parliament, and all perils and dangers 
saved." " I will have it done now, and afterwards 
ratified by parliament," said the king, and sternly ordered 
them, in the tone of a genuine royal Tudor, " on their 
allegiance to obey his order." The chief justice and his 
learned brethren of the law actually trembled at the 
anger of the beardless stripling, whom they saw hovering 
on the threshold of eternity, and, " with sorrowful hearts 
and weeping eyes, promised compliance, f on condition of 
his granting them a full and ample pardon, under his great 
seal, for the offence against the statutes of the realm they 
should incur by their obedience." Then the king turned 
to Bromley, and asked what he would do ? Bromley 
promised to obey. "And what say you, sir John Baker?" 
enquired his majesty, turning to his chancellor of the 
exchequer," for you have said never a word to day." He, 
of course, succumbed to the royal will. Griffin, the 
attorney general, did not make his appearance. He had 
perceived that Edward's term of life was fast drawing to 

* Narrative of sir Edward Montague of the causes which induced him and 
his Law Brethren to draw the Patents altering the Royal Succession. 

f Ibid. 



420 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

a close, and hastened to the lawful inheritrix of the 
crown, to aid her with his information and advice at 
this momentous crisis. 

The ebbing sands of the dying king must have been 
rudely shaken by the excitement of the contest. Nothing, 
of course, could fee more injurious to an invalid in the last 
stage of pulmonary consumption, than to rouse him from 
the repose of a sick bed, and bring him into a crowded 
room to speak of state affairs with dissentient parties, 
where he was provoked to raise his voice in angry dis- 
cussion in order to enforce obedience to his will. His 
state is thus described by Noailles, the French ambas- 
sador, in a letter to his sovereign, dated June 16th, the 
day after the agitating scene just described : — 

" The illness of the king is such, that they have no more hopes ; 
but this is kept very secret. People think that he is every day 
mending and taking his walks in the garden, gallery, and park." 
* * * "I have learned from one of his physicians that he 
will never get beyond the month of August." 

Sir Edward Montague and the other great law officers 
having completed the document, or, as the king termed 
it, "the book," for settling the succession, were again 
summoned to Greenwich palace on the 21st of June, 
when it had passed the great seal and received the 
royal sign manual and the signatures of the council, 
and those of no less than nineteen peers and members 
of parliament.* Cranmer desired to be excused from 
signing, because this instrument was opposed to the will 
of Henry VIII., to which he had previously sworn. 
He doubted, moreover, whether Edward were not acting 
under constraint, and required to see him in private ; 
but this was not permitted, and, after some hesitation, 
he signed. f 

The day after the execution of this instrument, that 
vigilant reporter of the fluctuations of the dying king's 
malady, Noailles, communicates the following intelligence 
* Sir Edward Montague's. Narrative. f Strype. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 421 

to his sovereign : " They really thought of losing the 
king last Tuesday or Wednesday, yet it is now pre- 
tended that his fever has left him, and he is going on 
favourably. " This rumour was only to deceive the 
king's sisters and to gain time, for he was now rapidly 
sinking. 

In the notes for his will, Edward left " to each of 
his sisters a thousand pounds a-year, in addition to 
their incomes ; and also, in the event of their marry- 
ing with the consent of the majority of his executors, 
ten thousand pounds apiece towards their nuptial 
portion.''* 

The last fatal change took place on the 6th of July. 
The morning of that day was ushered in by the most 
dreadful thunderstorm that had passed over Europe in 
the memory of man. England had its full share of it. 
The turbid state of the atmosphere probably hastened 
the young king's death. A few hours before he expired, 
darkness, as at midnight, came down upon the earth at 
noonday, the thunder crashed and lightnings blazed, trees 
were torn up by the roots, and bridges were swept away 
by the torrents. f 

But the fury of the storm disturbed not the tran- 
quillity of Edward's departing spirit. Dr. Owen, the 
physician who had been present at his birth, and two 
of his favourite gentlemen in waiting, sir Henry Sidney 
and sir Thomas Wroth, were the sole watchers beside the 
deathbed of this fairest and most promising of England's 
royal hopes. In that solemn hour, when hovering on 
the verge of eternity, the dying sovereign explained to 
Sidney, "that his zeal for the permanent establishment 
of the true religion of the Gospel in England, and hib 
desire to prevent a relapse into Popery, was the reason 
of his electing the lady Jane Gray to succeed him, in 
preference, to his sister Mary, not any personal ill-will 

* Strype. 
t Zurich Letter ; Julius de Rentianus to John ab Ulmins. 



422 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

or spleen unto that princess ; but out of pure love to his 
subjects, desiring that they might live and die in the Lord 
as he did."* Exhausted, perhaps, by this discourse, the 
royal youth long remained silent and motionless, with 
closed eyes, as if unconscious. At length he gave utter- 
ance to the following prayer: — 

" Lord God, free me, I beseech thee, out of this 
miserable and calamitous life, and receive me among the 
number of thine elect, if so it be thy pleasure, although 
not mine, but thine, be done. To thee, O Lord, do I 
commend my spirit. Thou knowest, Lord, how happy I 
shall be may I live with thee for ever, yet would I might 
live and be well for thine elect's sake, that I might 
faithfully serve thee. Lord God, bless thy people, 
and save thine inheritance ! Lord God, save thy 
people of England, defend the kingdom from Popery, 
and preserve thy true religion in it, that I and my 
people may bless thy holy name for thy son, Jesus 
Christ." f 

Then opening his eyes, which had previously been 
closed, and seeing Dr. Owen, his physician, (from whose 
report we have this 'prayer,) sitting by, he said, " Are 
you there ? I had not thought you had been so near." 
" Yea," replied the physician, " I heard your highness 
speak." " Indeed," said Edward, " I was making my 
prayer to God." 

About three hours after he suddenly exclaimed : "I am 
faint ; Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me, and receive my 
soul ! " Then, sinking on the bosom of sir Henry Sidney, 
who was tenderly supporting him, he gently breathed his 
last sigh, with those words on his lips. He expired about 
six o'clock in the evening, in the midst of the storm, 
aged fifteen years, eight months, and eight days. 

" This young prince/' records Sidney, in his Memories 
touching king Edward's death, "who died within my 

* Sir Henry Sidney's " Memories touching King Edward's Death." 
f Bishop Godwin's Annals of England, p. 150. 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 423 

arms, had almost caused death to penetrate his dart 
even into my own soul, for to behold him and how lamb- 
like he departed this life, and when his voice failed him, 
still he erected his eyes to heaven. "• 

Knox, who rarely speaks well of royalty, calls Edward 
VI. " the most godly and virtuous king that ever reigned 
in England, or elsewhere, these many years bypast, who 
departed the misery of this life the vith of July, 1553. 
The death of this prince," says he, "was lamented of all 
godly within Europe, for the graces given him of God, as 
well of nature as of erudition and godliness, passed the 
measure that accustomably useth to be given to other 
princes in their greatest perfection, and yet exceeded he 
not sixteen years of age. What gravity above age, what 
wisdom passing all expectation of man, and what dex- 
terity in answering all things proposed, were into that 
excellent prince, the ambassadors of all countries, yea, 
some that were mortal enemies of his realm, (among 
whom the queen dowager of Scotland was not the least,) 
can and did testify."f 

Two days after the king's death, the lords of the privy 
council sent for the lord mayor of London, sir George 
Barne, to come to Greenwich, and bring with him six or 
eight of his brethren the aldermen, and twelve merchants ; 
and when they arrived in the afternoon, acquainted them 
secretly " that the king died two days before, and whom he 
had appointed by his letters patent to succeed him in the 
government of the kingdom. £ " 

The body of king Edward remained unburied at 

* Clarendon MSS., British Mu- against the person of Edward nor 

seum, additional 9797, f. 142. Note invaded his realm ; all she did was 

to Literary Remains of Edward VI., to defend her daughter from the 

Roxburgh Club Book. unjust pursuit of those who strove 

t Mary of Lorraine. This princess to tear her from her arms, under 

was no enemy, either to Edward VI. pretence of wedding her to her little 

or to England. She neither plotted cousin. 

% Strype's Notes on sir John Hay ward's Life and Reign of King Edward VI. 



424 EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

Greenwich during the ephemeral reign of his unfortu- 
nate successor, lady Jane Gray, and till his sister Mary 
was firmly established on the throne. Meantime, he was 
not forgotten by his loving subjects of the reformed 
faith, by whom his death was passionately deplored, and 
regarded as a punishment for the sins of the nation. 
Among others, the general opinion prevailed that his 
death had been caused by poison ; and one of the foreign 
divines then in England repeats the following marvellous 
fiction connected with his decease : — " That monster of a 
man, the duke of Northumberland, has been committing 
a horrible and portentous crime. A writer worthy of 
credit informs me ' that our excellent king has been most 
shamefully taken off by poison. His nails and hair fell 
off before his death ; so handsome as he was, he entirely 
lost all his good looks. The perpetrators of the murder 
were ashamed of showing the body of the deceased king 
to lie in state and be seen by the public, as is usual ; 
wherefore they buried him privately in a paddock adjoin- 
ing the palace, and substituted in his place, to be seen by 
the people, a youth not very unlike him whom they had 
murdered. One of the sons of the duke of Northumber- 
land acknowledges the fact.' "* This story was utterly 
devoid of truth. Two years afterwards, an impostor, 
or lunatic, named Edward Fetherstone, was taken into 
custody at Hampton Court, and committed to the Mar- 
shalsea, for giving himself out to be Edward VI. He 
was condemned to the pillory, f 

The long-delayed obsequies of the lamented young 
sovereign commenced on the 8th of August, just one 
month and two days after his death. "A majesty was 
set up for him in the chapel at Whitehall, and another 
at Westminster Abbey. His corpse was drawn in a 
chariot covered with cloth of gold, whereon lay his 

* John Bonrcher to Henry Bullinger. Original Letters, printed by the 
Parker Society, 

t Privy Council Records, 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 425 

effigies, with a crown of gold and a great collar, his 
sceptre in his hand, covered with his robes, the Garter 
about his leg, and his coat with embroidery of gold. 
The marquis of Winchester was chief mourner, and next 
him went twelve other great lords, mourners, six earls 
and six barons, going two and two. Archbishop Cranmer 
performed the office of burial according to the reformed 
way, and Day, bishop of Chichester, preached the funeral 
sermon."* 

While these rites were proceeding in Henry the 
Seventh's chapel, Westminster Abbey, queen Mary, with 
her ladies and Roman Catholic prelates and choir, were 
assisting in a solemn dirge for the repose of Edward's 
soul in the Chapel Eoyal within the Tower of London, 
with the usual ceremonies of the Church of Rome. 
Prayers for his soul were, by her desire, repeated 
during the whole of her reign, at the high altar in Henry 
the Seventh's chapel before which he was buried. This 
beautiful altar, of which we give an engraving from the 
drawing preserved of it in Sandford, was mistaken by 
that author, as well as Fuller and several other writers, 
for Edward's monument.! " He was interred," says 
Strype, "at the head of his grandfather, Henry VII., 
and resteth under an altar monument of brass gilt, curi- 
ously wrought, but without any inscription, though he 
well deserved it." Edward really never had a monu- 
ment erected for him ; but the design of the splendid altar 
of his grandfather's mortuary chapel, which was sur- 
mounted by the escutcheon of the first Tudor sovereign, 
with the Merlin dragon, J and Plantagenet lion supporting 

* Strype' 8 Notes to sir John he was buried (I will not say sacri- 

Hayward's Life and Reign of King ficed with an untimely death by the 

Edward VI., in White Kennet treachery of others), did formerly 

f " Pity it is," observes Fuller, supply the place of his tomb, which 

" that he who deserved best, should is since abolished, under the notion 

have no monument erected to his of superstition." 
memory. Indeed, a brass altar, of J The colours and emblems of 

excellent workmanship, under which English royalty had been somewhat 



426 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



the crown of England, might easily, after a few years, 
have led to that notion. 

Beyond the supporters were the two angels at the 
Holy sepulchre, one holding by the temple pillar, on 
which tradition affirms stood the cock St. Peter heard 
crow, the other grasps a cross of Calvary. The subject 
of the altar piece being the resurrection of our blessed 
Lord. 

The fact, that prayers had been fondly offered for the 
repose of Edward's soul by the order of his royal sister, 
queen Mary, during her short reign, afforded a ready 
excuse for Cromwell's puritan destructives, nearly a 
century later, to tear down and hurry into the melting 
pot, for the value of the metal, the only memorial that 
marked the resting place of the mortal remains of our 
first protestant king.* 

Sandford, the worthy illustrator of regal antiquities, 



changed since the accession of the 
Tudor dynasty, or, as Edward VI' s 
grandfather, Henry VII, perpetually 
averred, u the . restoration of the 
ancient British monarchy/' The glare 
of scarlet which we constantly note in 
the historical illuminations pertain- 
ing to the Plantagenets, was softened 
hy the Tudor colours of white and 
green, worn by these sovereigns at 
all court festivals and other pub- 
lic occassions, although scarlet was 
still the state colour in corona- 
tions and high national solemnities. 
As to the English supporters, one of 
the lions had to vacate his warder- 
ship on the side of the armorial 
scutcheon, being superseded by the 
dragon of Merlin, and, occasionally, 
the white greyhound of the Tudors. 
But a lion was usually predominant 
as a royal crest, when the crown was 
not placed there, and was often 
placed over the crown. 

The elegant Plantagenista, the 



bonny broom of the Plantagenets,had 
to give way to a stiff heraldic flower, 
called the " Tudor rose," composed of 
a red rose of only four leaves, within it 
was placed a smaller of white, which 
thus indicated the party badges of 
York and Lancaster united in the 
persons of the Tudor monarchs. As 
to the Plantagenet roses; the white, 
at least, were represented as wild 
single roses in the beautiful illumi- 
nated royal MS. Chronicle, once the 
property of Edward IV. 

* The design of this altar is attri- 
buted to the celebrated Torregiano, 
the contemporary of Michael Angelo, 
who designed the beautiful monument 
of Elizabeth of York, the consort of 
Henry VII., and came to England 
to complete his work under the 
superintendence of that king. This 
altar, of the same materials with 
the magnificent screen to the tomb, 
was in exquisite harmony with the 
whole. 






EDWARD THE SIXTH. 



427 



has preserved the design of this elegant work of art. 
Thus giving a practical exemplification of the classical 
apothegm, 

" And monuments themselves memorials need." 




Bronze Altar formerly in Henry VII. 's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, before which 
Edward VI. was buried. From Sandford. 



APPENDIX. 



LITURGIES OF EDWARD VI. 

To prevent, in future, diversity of practice, to enable the people at 
large to understand the public service, and more especially to suppress 
unscriptural tenets, and to introduce a purer formulary of worship, 
the king and council resolved that one Public Liturgy should be 
composed in English, by commissioners selected from the clergy, 
and that it should be ratified by parliament. The duties of the 
commissioners were, not to innovate, but to remove innovations. 
Whatever was sanctioned by Scripture and by primitive usage was to 
be retained, and nothing was to be rejected but that which savoured 
of superstition, or tended to encourage erroneous notions either of 
doctrine or religious worship : and it may here be remarked, that 
the greater part of all our Books of Common Prayer was composed 
from the very words of Scripture, and the entire of them founded 
upon Scripture. (1 Stephens, English Books of Common Prayer, 
Intro d. xliv.) 

The result of the labours of the Commissioners was embodied in 
Stat. 2 & 3 Edward VI, c. 1, which, after premising, that there 
had been several forms of service, and that of late there had 
been great difference in the administration of the sacraments, and 
other parts of divine worship ; and noticing, that in order to there 
being one uniform way over all the kingdom, the king, by the 
advice of the lord protector and his council, had appointed the 
archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and 
discreet bishops, and other learned men, to consider and ponder upon 
the premises : and thereupon, having as well eye as respect to the 
most sincere and pure Christian religion taught by the Scripture, as 
to the usages in the primitive church, should " draw and make" 
one convenient order of common and open prayer and administration 
of the Sacraments to be used in England and Wales ; and that they, 
" by the aid of the Holy Ghost, had, with an uniform agreement " 
[of the compilers], concluded on, and set forth such order, in a book 
intituled, " The Book of the Common Prayer, and Administration of 



430 APPENDIX. 

the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after 
the use of the Church of England ;" wherefore, the lords spiritual and 
temporal and commons, having considered this hook, and the things 
that were altered or retained in it, enacted that all ministers in any 
cathedral or parish church should he hound "to say, and use the 
mattens, eyen song, celebration of the Lord's Supper, commonly called 
the mass, and administration of each of the sacraments, and all their 
common and open prayer, in such order and form as is mentioned 
in the same hook, and none other or otherwise.' ' 

The principal differences between the Prayer Book that was issued 
under this Statute, and the one that is now in use under Statute 
13 & 14 Car. II., c. 4, are as follow : 

1. The Morning and Evening Service began with the Lord's 
Prayer ; and the prayers for the king, royal family, and clergy, etc., 
were wanting at the end of it. The Litany was not ordered to be 
used on Sundays, and contained a petition to be delivered from the 
tyranny of the bishop of Rome. 

2. Each Communion Service began with an introit, or psalm, sung 
as the officiating ministers were proceeding to the altar, a custom 
resembling that which is now observed in cathedral churches. In the 
praise given for the saints, the name of the Yirgin was especially 
mentioned. The sign of the .cross was used in the consecration of 
the elements ; and there was a prayer for sanctification with the 
Spirit and "Word of Cod. The words at the delivery of the elements 
were only the first clause of those now used; and water was 
be mixed with the wine. This service varied much from the one at 
present in use, and the Decalogue formed no part of it. 

3. In the Baptismal Service, a form of exorcism, in order to expel 
the evil spirit from the child, was still used. The child was anointed, 
and invested with a white garment, or chrisom, to denote the inno- 
cency of the profession into which it was now admitted. The 
baptismal water was consecrated once a month, and the minister was 
directed to dip the child thrice. 

4. The Catechism formed a part of the Office for Confirmation, 
and wanted the explanation of the sacraments at the end. 

5. The Office for Confirmation consisted merely in the laying on 
of hands with prayers, without any promise on the part of the person 
confirmed, with which it now begins. The sign of the cross was 
still used in it. 

6. In Matrimony, the sign of the cross was still retained, and 
money was given with the ring to the bride. 

7. In the Yisitation of the Sick, allusion was made, from the 
Apocrypha, to Tobias and Sara, k prayer was added in case the 
sick person desired to be anointed, and he was then to be signed 



APPENDIX. 431 

with the cross. And it was further directed, that the same form of 
absolution then used should be used in all private confessions. 

8. In the Burial of the Dead, there were prayers for the person 
buried, and for the dead generally. A particular service was added 
for the celebration of the eucharist at funerals. 

9. With regard to dresses, priests were ordered to wear the 
surplice in parish churches, and to add the hood when they offici- 
ated in cathedrals and colleges, or preached. And in the communion, 
the bishop was directed to wear, besides his rochet, a surplice or albe, 
with a cope or vestment, and to have a pastoral staff borne by 
himself or his chaplain. The officiating priest* was to wear a white 
albe, plain, with a ve'stment or cope, and the assisting ministers were 
to appear in albes with tunicles. 

10. "With regard to Ceremonies used by the people, the following 
rubric occurred, but has been subsequently omittted: " As touching 
kneeling, crossing, holding up of hands, knocking upon the breast, 
and other gestures, they may be used or left, as every man's devotion 
serveth, without blame ;" and it may be observed, that the reasons 
there drawn up " why some ceremonies were abolished and some 
retained," and which were then placed at the end of the Prayer 
Book, now stand as a preface. (2 Short, Hist, of the Church, 310. 
1 Stephens, English Book of Common Prayer ; Introd. liii — v.) 

The Second Peayee Book of Edwaed YI. was annexed and joined 
to Stat. 5 & 6, Edward YI., c. 1, and the principal alterations which 
were made by that Statute in the Prayer Book of 1549, were as 
follow : — The sentences, exhortation, confession, and absolution were 
now first appointed to be read in the beginning of morning and evening 
prayer. The versicles after the Lord's Prayer were put in the plural 
number, and Allelujah, appointed in the former book to be said from 
Easter to Trinity Sunday, was omitted. Some psalms after the 
lessons, some occasional prayers at the end of the litany, and various 
rubrics, were added. 

The Litany itself was now first removed from the end of the 
Communion Service, and appointed to be used on Sunday, as well 
as on Wednesday and Eriday. The people being observed to 
approach the Lord's table, without due solemnity and . preparation, 
the ten commandments were appointed to be read after the collect, 
in the beginning of the Communion Service, and a short petition 
to follow each, as a means, till discipline could be restored, of pre- 
paring the congregation to partake worthily of the holy sacrament. 
The words, " militant here in earth," were annexed to the preface 
of the prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church; and a new 
exhortation was composed to be used, when the people were negli- 
gent in coming to the Holy Communion. The offices of Ordination, 



432 APPENDIX. 

likewise, which had been drawn up in 1550, were, with some 
few mutations, annexed to the Book. 

The next material alterations were the removal of a few ceremonies 
and usages retained in the First Book, some of which appear to have 
been at least superfluous. Such, in the office of Baptism were, the 
sign of the Cross made on the child's breast, the Exorcism, or the 
form of Abjuration, commanding the unclean and cursed spirit to 
depart ; the repetition of Immersion, first dipping the right side, 
then the ^left, then the face toward the font ; the putting upon the 
child his (or her) white vesture, commonly called the chrisom, with 
the address to the child on the occasion ; and the Anointing 
of the Child, with the Prayer for the Unction of the Holy Spirit. 
Such, likewise, were the sign of the cross in Confirmation, and extreme 
Unction at the Visitation of the Sick. In the Churching of Women, 
the part of the last Rubric, concerning the chrisom, was omitted, . 
and the former title, Purification of Women, was abandoned. 
Prayers for the dead, both in the Communion and Burial Offices, 
were expunged. 

The Order of the Communion Office, in general, was much altered ; 
and the arrangement of some parts of it was changed. In the title, 
the words ' ' commonly called the Mass " were expunged ; and the 
conclusion of the prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church, in 
which praise and thanks were given for the wonderful grace declared 
in the blessed Virgin and all the Saints, was omitted. In the prayer 
of Consecration, the petition for the sanctification of the Elements was 
probably thought capable of a construction favourable to the doctrine 
of transubstantiation ; and on this account the words, " Hear us 
merciful Father, we beseech thee ; and with thy Holy Spirit and 
Word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these thy gifts and creatures of 
bread and wine, that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy 
most dearly-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who in the same night," 
etc., were changed into " Hear us, merciful Father, we beseech 
Thee ; and grant that we, receiving these thy creatures of bread and 
wine, according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy Institu- 
tion, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of 
his most blessed Body and Blood, who in the same night," etc. The 
crossings made over the elements, at the repetition of the words 
li bless and sanctify," were laid aside. The rubric in the Office for 
the Visitation of the Sick> enjoining the indicative form of absolution 
to be used in private confessions, was left out, as was also that 
directing a little pure and clean water to be put to the wine in the 
chalice. 

In the First Book, the words spoken by the priest at the delivery 
of the bread are, " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was 



APPENDIX. 133 

given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." 
In the Second Book the words are, "Take and eat this, in remem- 
brance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by 
faith with thanksgiving." Again, when the cup is presented, the 
form in the First Book is, " The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life ;" 
but in the Second, " Drink this, in remembrance that Christ's blood 
was shed for thee, and be thankful." 

The introit which was in the First Book of Edward VI. was 
rejected in the second, and it is not easy to assign either the true or % 
a good reason for the omission. 

If some additional prayers and occasional forms be excepted, no 
essential difference exists between the Prayer Books of 1552 and 
1662. (1 Stephens, English Book of Common Prayer, Introd. Ixxvi 
— lxxxii.) 

The Manuscript Books of Common Prayer that were attached to 
Stat. 2 & 3, Edw. VI., c. 1, and Stat. 5 &6, Edw. VI. , c. 1, are not 
in existence. Mr. Stephens, Q,.C, likewise states that the Prayer 
Books which were annexed to Stat. 1, Eliz., c. 2, and Stat. 13 & 14, 
Car. II, c. 4, cannot be found among the Parliamentary Ptecords, and 
that the only Manuscript Book of Common Prayer which is known 
to be in existence, is the Manuscript Book belonging to the Irish 
Statute of Uniformity, 17 & 18 Car. II., e. 6. (1 Stephens, English 
Book of Common Prayer, Introd. clxxiv.) 



M, BURTON AND CO., PRINTERS IPSWICH. 



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